Iron and ire
by daughterofares97
Summary: The gods are arguing,nothing unusual there. This time it's about who's children are the best. To decide they visit camp and organise a competition. An event which may greatly effect Leo's love life. Leo/OC. RE-CONTINUED
1. Chapter 1

**Ch 1: A new enemy**

Ahh, beautiful morning sun shining birds chirping and, most importantly today was the day that the Ares cabin would chalk up our 5th consecutive victory in capture the flag. Something which I made very clear to my two best friends Francesca (daughter of Athena) and Layla (daughter of Apollo), who were on the opposing team.

I woke up early that day, so I decided to shower before anyone else got up, so I could actually get some hot water.

I finished quickly (us children of Ares are masters at speed dressing), and was brushing my long, red hair when I realised something, the Athena cabin showered first today. So, without further ado I dashed back to my cabin and got my emergency stash of spiders (don't question me ok, you never know when they could come in handy), and started hiding them around the showers.

I walked back to the cabin, stopping only to glare at my brown eyes (uh, why did they have to be so ugly) and was about to throw myself on my bed for of good  
>read of my new book 'How weapons changed the course of history' when I saw, sitting on my pillow, none other than the demon cat. She is six weeks old, grey, cute and extremely vicious. She is, unfortunately my sister Violet's little darling and nobody could touch her for fear of being whipped to death by Vi and her vicious, gold whips. The worst part about this whole fiasco was Furious (the kitten) knew this, and constantly used it to her advantage. Begrudgingly, I was forced to push my elder brother, Archer, who slept on the bunk below me, out of his bed and lay on that instead, he was so hung over that he didn't even wake up.<p>

The rest of my siblings woke up about an hour later and we went off to shower and eat a healthy breakfast of delicious artery clogging sausages, bacon and fried bread. Then we went back to cabin five to discuss our strategy for today's capture the flag game; or in more correct words we went back to our cabin and started screaming about how we were going to kick the other team's butts.

* * *

><p>That afternoon our entire team was pumped, ready for the game of capture the flag. We were teamed up with the Demeter, Zeus, Aphrodite (who, apart from Piper did nothing), Hypnos (the whole cabin did nothing), Dionysus, Hermes and Hades cabins (but Nico wasn't here this week). The rest of our team seemed to have a plan which they wanted to follow (ha! a plan, what losers), but the Ares cabin were just planning to wing it (no surprises there).<p>

The game started off perfectly, our entire cabin charged through the forest, but one by one my siblings were slowed down to fight the other campers that attacked them. I, the smallest and quickest Ares camper ran swiftly through the forest, masterfully dodging the Apollo campers' arrows, all the while softly humming the Indiana Jones theme tune.

I was almost to the flag when I was attacked by one of my best friends; Layla. "Well well well, if it isn't little Chrissy" said the daughter of Apollo stringing her bow. I drew my sword to attack, but was hit from behind with the hilt of a sword. I fell to the ground and turned around to see my other best friend, Francesca, holding a sword to my throat. They both stood over me, cheshire cat grins spread over their faces. Sneakily I reached into my back pocket and pulled out my slingshot from my back pocket, slowly I sat up, and pulled the rubber on the slingshot back, automatically it loaded and I quickly pulled it back and shot Cesca then Layla in the stomach. While they were still doubled over in pain I jumped nimbly to my feet and sprinted off towards the place where I knew the flag to be.

Surprisingly I made it without any further trouble, and when I reached the flag no one was guarding it. Now, years of living in the Ares cabin have taught me that the 1st rule of war is to trust nothing, person or situation; so I very carefully crept into the clearing, my hands clutched tightly to my slingshot. I was millimetres away from capturing my first flag when I stepped on some sort if trigger and was grabbed by an enormous bronze net.

Twisting around I tried to find a way out of the net. "Damn children of Hephaestus" I screamed in anger.

"Now, now that's not very nice is it?" said a boys voice from behind me.

Twisting around I saw one of the heroes of Olympus, Leo Valdez smirking at me. "Let me out of here!" I screeched.

"I think not Miss Matthews." he replied, his smirk widening.

"How the hell do you know my name?"

"That, my dear Christie, is a mystery for another day. Now I have a war game to go win. Goodbye!" he said as he sauntered off.

Oh, he will pay for this. Leo Valdez I swear upon all that is holy that you will pay for this misguided deed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Ch 2: Revenge**

**Leo's pov:**

I probably should have rethought the whole net trapping thing, because apparently trying to wow a girl with your amazing knowledge and skill regarding nets, traps and trip wires doesn't work. Especially if the girl you're trying to impress ends up lying curled up in a net for an hour. But how the Hades was I supposed to know that? Nobody ever told me it wouldn't work, but, judging by the looks my darling Chris is giving me as she eats her cereal, it had a completely opposite effect.

Not that I'm scared or anything okay? Hell, I had led an army against Gaea for Zeus' sake. I was just being a little...cautious...yeah thats all, I'm definitely not terrified of her. But, gods was she was so cute when she gave people the death glare.

"If you keep staring at her, you'll burn a hole through her face." said Beckendorf smirking.

"Look who's talking, you never stop gawking at Silena."

"Yes, but she's my girlfriend, and she hasn't sworn on all that's holy that she'll kill me." he replied.

"Besides, I wasn't looking at her in that way!"

"I know dude, just messing with ya. I mean look at her." What's wrong with her?

"She's not that bad." I replied, keeping my voice even.

"I suppose, if you like girls with virtually no figure, eyes that burst into flame at the slightest provocation, an evil face, and enough strength to rip your head off without breaking a sweat." said Jake. "I mean, look at her!"

Chris currently had one of her laughing, steroid-pumped brothers, David, I think, in a head-lock and she was playfully punching him in the face, probably for emptying her cereal bowl on her head. She looked so cute with milk dripping down her waist-length, rosy red hair.

Laughing, she looked up and caught my eye. Glaring, she let her brother go and slowly drew her finger across her neck, miming slitting my throat. Unconsciously I shivered and looked down.

"Yeah, well I don't like her; I was only keeping an eye on her to make sure she doesn't kill me."

"Don't blame ya, bro." said Jake. Ha! They fell for it, I'm an awesome liar.

_Chris' pov_

It had been a week since the net debacle, which means time for capture the flag again. Unfortunately I had not yet exacted my revenge on Leo, and to top that off the Hephaestus cabin had joined our team in exchange for the Hermes cabin, which means I'm not supposed to beat Leo Valdez up (like that's going to stop me)

Things did not start off as well as last week, I was cornered by several Athena campers and would probably have lost had Valdez not come to my aid (but if you tell anyone that I will kill you slowly and  
>painfully).<p>

After we had sent then running I tried to run towards the flag again when I noticed a small wire loop on the ground. It was familiar, I think the Hermes campers set them up for our team last time.

So, putting on a false smile I waved him forward saying; "Come on I know where the flag is" Carefully, so as to avoid the wire I ran off, Leo_, I mean Valdez_, followed grinning that stupid grin of his. He, however did not see the trip wire and stepped on it. Instantly the wire closed around his foot and hoisted him off the ground.

He looked so funny hung up by the foot, hair hanging in his grease-stained face. I just couldn't hold in the laughter. He, however was not amused, "get me out of here" he cried,

"No" I replied smirking

"Why not?" he shrieked back

I, mimicking his words from the week before said; "That, my dear Leo, is a mystery for another day. Now I have a war game to go win. Goodbye."

Of course, with all the highly amusing distractions I did not capture the flag, but my sister, Violet, thankfully did.

Because of our victory our cabin decided to celebrate with a pizza and soda *cough*beer*cough* party at the lake. So later that evening we headed down and most of us (me not included) got extremely drunk. Dionysus was plainly jealous so he assigned us kitchen duty for the next two months (whatever, I always blackmail one of my siblings into doing it anyway)

**Yeah…abrupt ending, and not really much happened, just some more character developement. **

**Whatever review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**First off, can anyone think of another title for this story, I really don't like the one I picked. Also I would just like to say that as this is my first real story, and I am only 14, I realize there will be mistakes. I would therefore appreciate any constructive criticism from readers; especially if my character is becoming a Mary Sue or any character is too OOC.  
>Hiker Writer has already told me my grammar should be improved, I will try to work on that.<strong>

**Ch. 3: Gods save us all**

**On Olympus.  
><strong>  
>"My children are way better than yours forge-boy" screamed an angry Ares.<p>

"My son defeated Gaea" roared Hephaestus in turn.

"He would never have been able to without my children as his soldiers" shouted the war god as the other Olympians sighed; this argument had been going on for quite some time.

"Well my son is one of the heroes of Olympus, and he led your children" said Hephaestus triumphantly.

"Well, I'm sleeping with your wife and she likes me better!" said Ares smirking.

"Why you...that's it lets settle this with a fight. Whoever wins has the better children."

"Agreed" replied Ares adjusting his sunglasses.

"You do realize that your fighting will have absolutely no effect on your children's merits, don't you?" said Athena glaring at the two gods disapprovingly.

"You're right, they should fight this out." said Ares grinning. "We'll go to camp and set up a tournament, whoever wins is the best."

"What about our children?" questioned Demeter, "mine are better than yours".

"Fine they can participate too" said Hephaestus, still angry at his half-brother.

"This is an extraordinarily bad idea" said Athena, looking remarkably like an owl. "But if we have to do this, we're doing it my way, understood."

All the gods averted their eyes from Athena's glare and nodded their reluctant agreement.

* * *

><p><strong>Chris' pov<strong>

The next morning was very fun, for me at least, as the majority of my siblings had a hangover. I, being the loving, caring sister that I am, decided to wake them up by banging on my shield with my hammer.

After being chased around for about half an hour and having a bit of sense beaten into me, my cabin and I headed towards campfire for some breakfast. The first thing I did was pour some orange juice on David's head as payback for yesterday, when he up-ended my cereal bowl on my hair.

I was midway through my third piece of toast (hey, all that training burns a lot of calories) when Chiron came up to make an announcement. "Campers," immediately one of my brothers threw a muffin at him (juvenile idiot). Chiron continued, obviously used to such abuse; "today at twelve o'clock there will be an important meeting. Please do not be late." he said glancing meaningfully at our cabin. Honestly the nerve of that centaur!

The Ares cabin got to the arena only 10 minutes late (come on did you really expect us to be on time?), which I'm pretty sure is a record for us. What greeted us was a surprise to say the least.

Standing in the arena were all twelve of the Olympian gods and goddesses, along with several of the minor gods.

My immediate thought was 'Gods save us all', which, when you think about it, is a pretty ironic plea.

Athena was the first to speak. She stepped forward, and, with a gracious wave greeted us. "Good morning campers. Now many of you may be wondering why we, your parents have decided to visit you now, after millennia of neglect." Wow how long did it take her to figure that one out? "The reason" she continued "is because of a slight disagreement between two of us." at this she glared at Hephaestus and Ares. Hephaestus had the grace to blush, my Dad, as I am proud to say, gave her the finger

Athena scowled and turned away "as I was saying, it has been decided that three demigods from each cabin must participate in tasks decided by the gods. I do understand that not all cabins have three occupants, those cabins will have as many participants as there are occupants. The first task shall be announced tomorrow morning. Now, off to bed with you."

* * *

><p>Not ten seconds after we had reached our cabin we started arguing about who should be the chosen three. Clarisse was a must, as was my brother Terry, our cabin's best fighter. Now I was not an obvious choice, as I was short, weak (compared to my siblings) and still fairly inexperienced, but I had some prime blackmail up my sleeve.<p>

I realized that I would never be heard above the cacophony so I reached under my bed and pulled out a foghorn, which I blew. The others shut up and glared at me. Unfazed, I turned to Clarisse and said, with my best puppy-dog eyes "come on Clarisse, let me be the third, I may not be the best fighter, but I'm definitely the most intelligent, and some of the tasks may require a bit of brain as well as brawn."

Clarisse didn't hesitate in saying no. However, I was not stopped that easily. "Alright dearest sis, I didn't want to do this, but you leave me no choice. If you don't select me as the third contestant I might 'accidently' let slip to dearest father what you and your little boyfriend have been doing in the wee hours of the night."(I unfortunately walked in on them, _shudder_, it's just too horrible to think about) Clarisse said nothing, but judging by her glare the whole cabin knew that I had won. So I, being the humble winner that I am, decided to do a little victory dance, while singing my victory song which goes something like this:

"Haha, I won, you lost, I'm awesome, you're a loser. Haha" (and so on)

I just couldn't wait until the first contest was announced.

**Leo's pov: **

This was going to be so awesome! Our cabin had decided that I, Beckendorf and Nyssa should participate. And I have the perfect plan. I would wow my beloved Christie with my amazing battle skills, and win her heart by winning this contest with my awesome intelligence.

It was an absolutely kickass plan (I was very proud of it)

**I know, I know, it was just another introductory chapter, but I promise that the subsequent chapters will be action packed (with some fluff a little further down the line)**

**Until then; Keep calm and flame on!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A special thanks to ummiuno011 who came up with the amazing new title for this story.**

**Ch 5: Deja vu.**

I could hardly sleep all through the night, I was so excited (and my brother's snores didn't exactly help the matter), so of course I had to wake my friends up too. So, creeping stealthily through the camp like the ninja I am, I slipped into the Apollo cabin and woke my best friend, Layla.

She semi-screamed but followed me to the Athena cabin, where our other best friend, Cesca, slept. She glared at us, but followed us to the arena none-the-less.

"So Ariel" (Ariel is the nickname my friends gave me, because they say I look like the mermaid) "were you picked?" said Layla excitedly.

"Of course she wasn't" said Cesca, still mad at us for waking her up.

"Hey, that's hurtful, and, for you information, I did. I blackmailed Clarisse into letting me."

"How?" they said simultaneously.

"Let's just say that Clarisse knows that our Dad doesn't take too kindly to his 'baby girls' disappearing into the darkness with their boyfriends at all hours of the night"

"Oh, she's gonna kill you for that." said Cesca (a little too happily at the thought of my pain)

"I know, but anyway, who are on your teams?"

"Well, there's me, Will Solace and..."

"Layla, you idiot! Don't tell her, she's the enemy!" said Cesca, glaring at me.

"Okay, but why does she care if my brother Harrison is on our team? Oh damn it!"

Immediately both Cesca and I face palmed, needless to say Layla isn't exactly the brightest bulb in the box. However; she sings like an angel and is the sweetest person I know, which I grudgingly accept is sometimes useful.

* * *

><p><strong>The next morning<br>Leo's pov:  
><strong>  
>I couldn't wait for the first task, this was going to be so awesome!<p>

Athena called the participants from the cabins one-by-one to stand on a podium that the gods had erected. When the Hephaestus cabin was called, I, in an effort to impress Christie, attempted to look very regal and manly as I walked over. Surpirsingly, I succeeded, until I tripped and fell flat on my face. I picked myself up despite the sniggers, and shuffled on, blushing.

Next Athena called the Ares contestants forward, Clarisse, Terry and Christie walked forwards. Ugh, wasn't that just great? My amazing plan is ruined.

"Now campers, what we did not tell you is that you will be working in pairs. At the end of the tournament the winning pair shall fight each other for the title. The pairs will be assigned by Aphrodite, because she whined the most."

Aphrodite stepped forward (looking remarkably like a slightly girlier and better dressed version of Christie) and plucked a scroll from thin air. With a little giggle she began; "The pairs shall be; Percy and Annabeth, Silena and Charles," haha, Charles " Piper and Jason..."

The list went on, containing mostly couples or siblings, until Aphrodite looked up with a smirk and said, grinning, "Leo and Christie" My immediate reaction was an inward victory dance.

Christie, on the other hand, was furious. With an irate cry of "What?" she flung herself to her feet, her eyes literally ablaze with fire. A quick glare from Aphrodite, however, quickly reminded her of who she was addressing.

She calmed herself down, and then turned back to the love goddess. In a forced, calm voice she said "My Lady, I, of course, shall respect your wishes, but I wish to ask the council one question; what would happen if, hypothetically of course, one of the pair became...unable to participate in the event. For example maybe he...or she was involved in a purely unintended, freak gardening accident, that left them paralyzed, insane, or perhaps even dead, would that person's partner still be able to participate alone?"

"No" snapped Athena immediately. I made a quick, silent prayer to Tyche, goddess of luck for that.

Christie replied "Thank you my Lady", before sitting down and sending me a look which had brought many weaker men to their knees. But I didn't care, the plan was back; bigger and better than ever before!

Artemis, Goddess of the hunt, walked to the stage, a glare firmly directed towards anything male within glaring distance. Her mouth opened, and she began to speak "I have decided the nature of the first task.' she said firmly, as if daring someone to disagree with her "The pairs shall hunt a monster of my choosing, you will gather outside the forest at noon today, you will have no time together to prepare. Any pairs with even one person critically injured by the end of the task will be disqualified." With a quick, final glare she disappeared in a blur of silver light.

**Approximately 12:30 pm  
>Chris' pov:<br>**  
>"Leo, I swear if you step on another twig, I am going to run you through where you stand"<p>

"I wasn't even moving that time" he claimed

"Then what the hell made that noise? Well? Answer me flame boy."

"Ummm...I think you should turn around now."

"Hera's holy cows, that is one big Orthrus."

The serpent tailed dog stood at least six feet tall at the withers, its green, scaled tailed whipping out behind it. Thankfully, by some miracle, it had not seen us yet, and had both of its two heads pointed in the other direction, sniffing the air.

"Maybe we should attack it while we still have the element of surprise." he suggested, in a voice that was simply too loud for the situation.

"Bit late for that." I replied, drawing my slingshot from my pocket as one of the Orthrus' heads turned around. "I'll distract it, you try to burn it." I said as I pulled the sling back and shot the huge monster in the neck.

"O.K." he said as his hands lit on fire.

I fired another shot, which hit the Orthrus directly between two of its eyes. Judging by its roar it didn't like that, however; based on the way it charged us when Leo hit it with a fire ball, it hated that even more.

The monster bore down on us at such an amazing rate, it would be a lie to say that I wasn't scared. I pulled my sword out, ready to attack at the same time as Leo threw another fireball. The Orthrus continued on, its fur only slightly singed. At the very last moment it swung around to the side, and its snake's tail smashed into the both of us, knocking us down.

I, thanks to intensive battle training, had the presence of mind to throw my arms around my head to cushion the blow, unfortunately letting go of my sword in the process. Leo, who was not as experienced or lucky landed with his head against a rock, effectively knocking him unconscious. And so I lay, weaponless and dazed, on the ground, a monster standing over me, poised for dinner. Wow, déjà vu.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't need any help, although when that golden arrow came whizzing through the forest, and pierced the monster in the left head, I was quite relieved. A battle cry emanated from the directing the arrow came from, as Layla and her partner Connor Stoll burst through the foliage bow drawn.

She fired again, this time the arrow lodged itself firmly in the chest of the Orthrus, turning it to dust.

Great, I just got my badass butt saved by a ditzy Apollo girl. I was never going to live this down.

**Constructive criticism is always appreciated. (as are reviews)**


	5. Chapter 5

**So, last night was one of those 'how can I be such a retard?' moments. I realised several hours after I uploaded the chapter that I had missed out a sentence. I changed it, but it basically says 'at the end  
>the winning pair will fight each other to see who wins' Yeah, Because that wasn't important at all...<strong>

**Chris' pov**

As was expected Layla did not let me forget how she saved my butt. The only thing that kept me from a real sulking fit was that I had lasted longer than Valdez (I think I would have melted into a puddle of shame if I hadn't).

But at least we managed to scrape our way into the next round (the only people to actually be eliminated were Clovis and Ashley, children of Hypnos) , which we were being informed about today. It was my father's choice for this round, so hopefully I would do better.

Our cabin actually arrived at the arena on time today (we had learned from personal experience that keeping our father waiting isn't an intelligent thing to do) and were actually very attentive when he began to speak.

"Now listen here punks, I've decided that for my task you're going to compete in a mock battle, free-for-all, no rules. It'll last for an hour, and any of those who are eliminated are gone from the competition. Oh, and to my kids one of you better win." Okay, I could do this; dirty, underhand guerilla warfare was my specialty. Leo on the other hand was another story, he had something called 'morals'. Those would have to go.

* * *

><p>"Hey, Christie"<p>

"Don't talk"

"Sorry, but shouldn't we be looking for other contestants so we could eliminate them."

"Ugh, Leo, you are such an amateur. First we lie in wait for them, then when we hear them we jump out and attack. That's what guerilla warfare is all about."

"Oh"

"Shh, I think I hear something."

"What?...Christie...Christie, what do you hear?"

I turned towards him and said through gritted teeth. "How the hell am I supposed to know, when you keep speaking and poking me?"

By the time I had turned back around a couple had walked into the arena. It was Clarisse and Chris. Now, don't get me wrong I _like_ Clarisse, she's a pretty cool sis, but there is also nothing I would like better than to beat her in this competition. So, ignoring my better instincts to let the older, stronger, and far more experienced fighter walk past I signaled to Leo to attack Chris from behind, as I did the same for Clarisse.

Leo, despite his elephant feet, managed to creep up on Chris and landed the first blow. I, on the other hand, was not so lucky. My sister obviously heard me creeping up behind her and also decided to make use of the element of surprise.

I was just _seconds_ away from knocking her unconscious with the hilt of my sword, when she swung around; lamer, I mean maimer, giving me a stunning blow to my right (and thankfully not my sword) arm, obviously today was one of those days when being left-handed was actually advantageous.

Still dazed from the jolt to my arm I stumbled back, throwing my sword in front of my face to protect myself from the onslaught of blows. Clarisse was really in her element, smashing someone else into the ground. Her self-confidence, which grew by the second, was my only hope. Through years of experience I had learned that whenever a child of Ares was winning a fight, they grew arrogant, and whenever we grew arrogant we made mistakes. Clarisse would slip up soon I just had to wait.

After what seemed like hours of dizzying blows Clarisse made an over-exuberant lunge and momentarily slipped on the dewy grass. Using the time it took her to regain her balance to my advantage I brought the hilt of my sword smashing down on her head. From the corner of my eye, I spotted Chris on the ground and Leo turning towards us. No way in hell was I getting help from forge-boy.

This additional insentive was all I needed to spur me on in my duel. With a series of well aimed blows and kicks, I, by some miracle, disarmed an enraged Clarisse and round-housed kicked her in the face (don't worry, her helmet protected her), knocking her unconscious.

Fist pumping in victory, Leo skidded to a halt in front of me, just as the conch shell sounded signaling the end of the challenge. He was so excited, he was literally steaming, small sparks flying from his ears. He actually looked kind of cute.

Okay, why the hell did I just suggest that? Daughters of Ares do not help sons of Hephaestus, no matter how cute...wait what? I did not just say that. Please tell me I did not just think that Leo's pointy ears are actually kind of cute. Wait, stop it, you, Christie Wilhelmina (shut up) Matthews, do not find Leo Valdez's curly hair or tan skin or stupid grin attractive in the least. And you certainly don't love the way he is always smudged with oil, and your cold, cold heart most definitely does not start doing backflips whenever he walks too close to you.

Okay, maybe I am slightly physically attracted to him, but that is definitely it, got that brain? 'Cause if you don't I'll have to beat you up.

Wow, he's reduced me to threatening my own brain. I'm doomed.

* * *

><p><strong>Ugh, I just realised the main character's name is the same as Clarisse's boyfriend.<strong> **Anyway, the next chapter will be in Leo's pov, I'm excited.**

**I have just one more thing to say: BUTTERFLY: |}|{|**


	6. Chapter 6

**So I know I said I wouldn't continue this story, but I lied. All the rights for this chapter go to my friend, who gave me the idea, and then beat me over the head with an encyclopedia until I wrote it.**

Leo's pov:

I could not believe it, we managed to make it through the round, and I didn't even have to toast anyone! I also learned that Christie gets a maniac gleam in her eye when she talks about war, and that all daughters of Ares look best when they're covered in blood (which is kind of freaky).

But anyway, so after that exercise in warfare Athena told us that her task would be next. For it we would have to build a chariot and drive it in a race. Is that awesome or what? Not only do I get to create a kick-ass chariot, but I get to build it with Christie. Muahahahah, this gives me the perfect opportunity to show off my amazing building skills.

"Why the hell are you laughing like that flame-boy?" Shit, did I do that out loud?

"No reason, dearest partner of mine." I replied. She shook her head in what appeared to be disgust (but what intelligent people like me knew was love).

"So" she continued "I will of course drive the chariot, you will build it. Don't bother about the horses, I have that under control. Now, it will be a two horse chariot, with a framework of celestial bronze…" gods she's hot when she starts ranting. "Got that punk?"

"Uh, yeah" I replied, even though I had no idea what she just said, suddenly I came up with an absolutely brilliant plan. "But, I'll need your measurements, to know the dimensions to build the chariot." Suave Leo, this gives you the perfect opportunity to be close to her.

"I'll give them to you." She said, scowl etched firmly on her face. Damn it.

**A couple of days later, in an abandoned alcove of bunker 9, still Leo's pov:**

The chariot was coming along perfectly…badly. In the space of the past two days it had exploded, collapsed, and burned down. For no reason what so ever, okay maybe the last one was my fault, but the rest weren't. But hopefully, this time it would not.

Christie had managed to scavenge some designs of ancient Greek battle chariots from her cabin's war rooms. I have no idea what the 'war rooms' are, and when I asked her she pulled a gun from nowhere, held it to my face and said (and I quote) "If you ever mention them again, I will rip your heart from your body, and force it down your throat." (though why she would need a gun for that I don't know).

The almost completed chariot was gorgeous, a true Leo masterpiece. It was celestial bronze and glowed in the sun. On the sides were the symbols of both Ares and Hephaestus (the Ares signs somehow ended up being about twice the size). All we needed now were some awesome weapons…and horses (yeah, those are kind of important)

"Pass me the wrench please, Christie." I said to my amazing coworker.

She did, and was silent for a few moments before saying "It's Chris."

"Huh?" was my immediate and intelligent answer.

"All my friends call me Chris. And even though you aren't my friend, I guess you can call me it, since we have to spend so much time together."

"Oh, thanks." Was my immediate and bored answer, but on the inside I was having the most amazing and most frenzied victory dance of my life. I was so happy I could die, Christie, I mean Chris, may actually not hate me that much. The possibilities were endless. "So, how about those weapons?" I said. Yep, today was definitely my day, I could feel it.

** Chris' pov:**

Why the hell did I just do that, am I insane? Stupid, stupid brain! I swear when this task is over I am going to kill you with all the alcohol, drugs and loud, heavy metal music I can find.

But for now I have to concentrate on stealing some of Dad's horses. Oh Tyche, goddess of luck, please don't let Phobos and Deimos be their.

**Now to find my copy of The Sea of Monsters to research chariot racing.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Sorry the lsat chapter was so short, but this one makes up for it.**

**Chris' pov:**

Black trousers: Check. Black hoodie: check. Black army-issue boots: check. 5 pound bag of carrots: check. Dark sunglasses even though it's nighttime: check.

There was nothing quite like a risky, illegal, unauthorized quest to clear your head of 'boy trouble', _not that I have any of course. _But anyway, a few conscious hours away from flame-boy would do me good. Famous last words.

I had barely made it out of my cabin when an excited, sparking boy plowed straight into me.

"Oof" said the boy good-naturedly.

"What do you want Leo?" I said tersely.

"I just came up with this great weapon idea. It works on hydraulics and… hey wait, what are you doing up?" he said, all in one breath.

"I was going to get the horses"

"Ya know you could just get them from the stables, you know in the day time. I heard that's normally what people do." He said, obviously grinning at what he thought to be a perceptive point.

"What? Use those namby-pamby, wishy-washy pegasi to pull a war chariot. I think not. What we need are war horses, battle hardened and trained by the great Ares himself."

"Oh, so your Dad's lending us horses then?" he said throwing his arm around my shoulder.

"No" I spat, twisting his arm "We are going to steal them."

"Won't he mind?"

"Not if we win. But if we lose, he'll probably kill you and ground me. Now I have a motorbike in that shed over there, and I intend to get on it in about 5 seconds so hurry up if you want to come."

"Coming right now." Uh. Stupid, stupid brain, why did you ask him, I'm definitely not wearing a helmet. That'll teach you.

* * *

><p>"Are we there yet?" if he doesn't shut up…<p>

"No."

"Are we there yet?" I am going to kill that boy.

"Yes." I said through gritted teeth.

"But this is a ship. People don't normally keep horses on ships."

"Well my father does, now shut up. From now on we have to be absolutely silent." So, I pressed a button on the motorbike (which turned it into a Rubik's cube), and slipped it into my pocket as we crept on to the ship as silently as possible. It's not like I was scared of my Dad or anything, he's actually a pretty good father, as gods go anyway. Sure, he shouts at us at random times, and threatens to kill us if we show weakness, but if we're actually in a life-or-death situation, he actually comes to help, and trust me not many demi-gods can say that. The real reason I didn't want to be caught were my brothers, Phobos and Deimos, they were not at all fun, trust me.

Surprisingly, we managed to make it on the boat and into the stables without any trouble, which means we either got super lucky, Dad's security has really gone down the drain, or someone is toying with us. I was willing to bet on the last one.

"Nice, evil horsies." I said as I approached the huge black stallions. I reached in my bag for a carrot, and held it towards its face. A horse named Blackheart slowly began to approach, he obviously recognized me as one of his master's children as it did not attempt to eat me (trust me they do that, I've seen it happen). It grabbed the carrot from my hand as I slipped a specially designed halter around his head.

Slowly, another began to approach, this one named a stallion named Buttercup (I'll bet all I own that Aphrodite named that one), obviously Blackheart's pair, walked up too. Slowly, I fixed a harness around his neck and attached it to the other horse. Sighing with relief, I led the first out, the other following, as I silently motioned for Leo to follow me.

We were centimeters away from the door when my absolute favorite immortal brother decided to pay us a visit.

"Aww look Deimos, it's our favorite sister. And she brought her boyfriend, won't Daddy be pleased." Okay, not good, not good, no way in hell was I having them drag me up in front of Dad.

"Leo, whatever you do, don't look in their eyes, got it." I said, grabbing his arm for emphasis. And what's the first thing he does? Well he looks into his eyes of course! So he stood there, paralyzed in fear of gods knows what's, leaving me to deal with the dipshit twins all by myself. Just perfect, this is how I always wanted to die, my father screaming at me non-stop for hours on end, with my immortal brothers standing behind him sniggering.

But there was no way in Hades I was going down without a fight, so I grabbed Leo's head, covering his eyes. Bringing his ear close to my mouth I whispered "D'ya think you can throw a fire ball at them or something, then jump on the horse?"

"Got it." He whispered back, his voice still quivering. Before I even had time to register what was going on he had blasted the gods with a massive flame ball.

As quickly as I could I leapt onto Blackheart's back, and dragged Leo up behind me. Grabbing the reins I screamed as loudly as I could and kicked the horses into action. They galloped out the stable door at breakneck speed, trampling Phobos and Deimos in the process.

I clung on to the horse's neck with all my strength as we skimmed over the ground towards Camp Half-Blood. Leo's arms clung tightly around my waist, his chin hooked over my right shoulder, our cheeks resting against one another. Not that I noticed or anything. Hehehe

* * *

><p>We had been riding for about two hours, and my butt was starting to really hurt, when we reached camp. The horses ploughed through the camp towards the stables, thankfully, by some miracle we managed to avoid riding through any of the cabins. Unfortunately, we showed no signs of stopping anytime soon. Leo, who obviously noticed this decided to scream in my ear; "How the hell are we going to stop?" For a few moments I was more than a tiny bit worried, until I came up with a rather cunning plan.<p>

"Pull on the reins" I screamed to him. We both did, pulling on it with all of our rather limited strength. Gradually the horses began to slow down, just enough so that we cantered into the stable rather than galloped.

The horses, who obviously smelt the hay and sugar cubes I left for them in one of the stalls stopped rather abruptly. Leo and I on the other hand did not.

We sailed over Blackheart's head, doing a few graceful somersaults in the air as we went. I landed in a nice, soft pile of hay. Leo landed on an even softer pile of me, which I did not appreciate.

"Get off." I said, my voice dangerously soft.

Blushing, he scrabbled off me, and pushed his messy hair out of his face. I shudder to think what my hair looks like at the moment. I groaned as I stood to me feet and we walked out of the stall. I latched the door securely and gave Leo a curt, goodnight nod.

Plainly, he decided that that was not enough and pulled me into a tight hug. It lasted for about two seconds, but it felt like so much longer. He quickly released me and walked out the door shouting goodnight.

I stood there, unmoving for at least another 5 minutes.

**Awwwwwwww, so cutesy, and even a bit fluffeh.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Sorry I didn't update before, but I had so much work, and all my free time was spent watching the fourth season of Merlin (if you don't know what Merlin is, seriously crawl into a hole, die, get reborn, then watch it on youtube)**

* * *

><p><strong>Chris' pov:<strong>

"Are you sure you want to do this?" asked Leo, obviously concerned.

"Of course" I snapped. Okay, so maybe i was a little scared, but I had driven a chariot before. Just because these horses are about five times as strong, doesn't mean I can't handle them. "Now help me strap the horses up."

"Campers." shouted Athena from the stands "the rules are simple. There shall be one charioteer, and one helper. You must race three times around the track; the first ten chariots shall proceed to the next round. Now, line your chariots" with a final wave of her hand the wisdom goddess sat down with all the other Olympians and stared blankly at the track.

Everyone led their chariots onto the start line. Our horses were actually behaving quite well, although that would probably stop once they started running.

When they saw our horses my father glared at me, and my siblings started muttering amongst themselves. Probably something along the lines of 'I call Christie's bunk.' or 'ten drachmas says the bitch gets killed.' Clarisse, however, looked ecstatic, probably because she was looking forward to watching Leo and I get trampled to death.

Leo and I, that sounds nice. No, concentrate on the race gods damn it!

Nervously, I pulled on my leather gloves as I stepped into the chariot, Leo behind me. Grabbing hold of the reins and wrapping them around my wrists I stood. Gods damn it I was going to win this race of it killed me.

Although our chariot was made of celestial bronze, it was very slim, little more than wire mesh, and would therefore provide little protection if our horses decided they didn't like us all that much (which wasn't that far-fetched an idea)

The countdown started, 10, 9. From the corner of my eyes I could see the other campers begin to ready their horses. 6, 5. I could see one of my younger sisters holding up a sign with my name on it. 3, 2, 1.

The conch horn blared from the marble stand surrounding the ring. The horses, obviously accustom to such races set off immediately, the little good I could do was steer them.

We immediately took the lead thanks to our superior, immortal horses. Not long after I heard a crack and a scream from behind us, as Cesca's chariot crashed, I heard her and her partner shriek, and my head instinctively jerked around. One of the gods beamed them from the track a split second before Beckendorf and Silena's chariot smashed into there's. That split second however was enough for Jason and Pipers chariot (pulled by venti in horse form) to overtake us.

Over the course of the next 30 seconds a few other chariots passed us as well. Although our horses were the strongest, I had hardly any control over them so we weren't taking a very good route round the track.

Somehow I managed to jerk the horses into the inside lane, and leaving a trail of carnage behind us we regained the lead.

Everything was going perfectly until something jammed our back wheels. I heard Leo scream into my ear "They're plants"

"Burn them!" I screamed back.

As Leo hung precariously off the back of the chariot, burning the plants from our wheels Katie and Travis pulled up next to us. Well that explains the plants I guess.

Leo popped back up, his job complete, and shouted "See ya suckers!" as he flipped a switch which fired super-fast drying adhesive to their chariot wheels. They instantly ground to a halt, their horses neighing  
>furiously, and the riders shouting obscenities.<p>

By this time we had made it passed the finish line for the second time, meaning it was our third and final lap this meant that we could finally use our greatest weapon. Leo!" I screamed "time to hit the button."  
>Flame-boy obviously agreed with me as he hit the big red button on the dash-board which released a sea of slick oil behind us.<p>

From behind us came the screech of wheels, many screams and a string of curses as most of the chariots slid out of control and smashed into one another. I was really beginning to enjoy myself.

With most of the obstacles out of the way, we sped around the last lap in record time, narrowly beating Percy and Annabeth's chariot to the finish line. Unfortunately, we couldn't stop. The horses, plainly hyped up on endorphins continued galloping at full speed, the combined efforts of Leo and I doing nothing to slow them down. Despite this, I wasn't too worried they would just run themselves into the ground.

I remembered as we turned the corner in front of the oil spill, what our favorite weapon had been, our stallions on the other hand didn't, until they ran straight into it. Talk about karma.

Mere seconds after our chariot hit the oil slick the wheels spun out from beneath us, hit one of the wrecks on the track and flipped over. Leo and I spun in not-so-graceful arcs through the air, I landing with a sickening crunch on my right arm.

A few pained seconds later I dragged myself to my feet, just about ready to faint. Leo, unharmed (the lucky, lucky bastard) rushed towards me, and held his hands out behind me to catch me if I fainted. I promptly fell face first towards the oil-saturated ground in a dead faint.

* * *

><p><strong>Tomorrow's chapter will be almost pure fluff in Leo's pov ;). <strong>

**Seriously, watch Merlin (right after you review)**


	9. Chapter 9

**First off I made a picture of Chris and uploaded it here:  
>.comart/Christie-Matthews-278309145**

**For all you people who can't visualize people (like me!), or if my description of her was bad, or if you're just bored.**

* * *

><p><strong>Chris' pov:<strong>

The first thought that sprung to my mind as I woke up was 'ugh, my arm huuuuurts' the second thought was 'why the hell does this creepy boy have his face so close to mine?'

"What's a care bear?" asked the boy, whose face was slowly starting to shift into focus.

"Why do you ask, Leo?" I said, leaning on my good arm, examining with distaste the loose, cotton infirmary issue pajamas I was wearing.

"Well, when you were asleep you started screaming 'not the care bears, anything but them!'" shit, shit shit, did I have that nightmare again?

"They're a type of mythical bear, known for their ferocity and violence." I said, thinking to myself 'nice save'.

Leo, on the other hand started grinning even wider and said "I thought they were cartoon bears that were all pink and stuff."

"Well, I'm not scared of them." I said folding my arms across my chest and glaring at the boy defiantly. Trying to change the subject I said "Now, did we win, what happened?"

"We won, of course, thanks to my superior chariot building skills. All but two of the other chariots crashed, but you were the only person who stayed unconscious for three days, everyone else has left the infirmary." Ugh, just great. "Oh, that reminds me, I got you a get well present." He said, smiling innocently as he pulled something pink out of his bag. With horror I saw that it was my arch nemesis, the most evil creature to walk the face of this planet, love-a-lot bear.

Before I could stop myself, I screamed, jumped up and fell off the side of the bed landing in a painful pile on the floor. And that boy had the tenacity to ask me if I was alright, and then he laughed. _He laughed._

With a loud battle cry, I launched myself at the sniggering son of Hephaestus, and gripped him round the neck. I landed, straddling his stomach, as my hands clenched around his collar and I bashed his head repeatedly against the floor. But_ he wouldn't stop laughing,_ no matter how hard I hit him. So, still exhausted I removed my hands from his neck and placed them on his shoulders and glared at his ugly face.

We sat there, unmoving for several seconds, when he began to sit up and lean towards me. I panicked and froze in position, my face still angry, his still grinning.

Our heads were barely six inches apart when the door banged open, and someone grabbed the back of my shirt and hoisted me to my feet. Part of me was furious, and part of me glad for the intrusion, but when I turned around to scowl at the perpetrator all I could think was I'm so dead.

Glaring right at me was a scarred face that could send a platoon of marines run screaming for cover. "Heeeey, Dad" I said, smiling sheepishly.

Ares did not return my greeting; instead he dropped me on my cot, and growled at Leo to "get the hell outta here." Thankfully, he did, rather sharpish. The face he made was hilarious, a bit like a dying duck. Had this been any other situation I would have died laughing; now I was just going to die.

Turning towards me the war god semi-shouted "What the hell do you think you were doing?"

Think fast, Christie, think fast "I was beating him up for being so annoying." I lied easily. "What, do you honestly think I would purposefully touch him for any other reason?" Please, please fall for it.

"Oh" the war god grunted "that's my girl" wow, you are a retard.

"Now, what the hell do you think you were doing with my war horses?" my father shouted, his eye twitching. "Your mother would be furious with you!" Oh no he did not just bring Mum into this.

**Leo's pov**

I was so fricking close that time, I could have kissed her if he hadn't walked in, damn war god. We could making out on the infirmary floor by now if we weren't disturbed, gods damn it. No, scratch that, that wouldn't happen. Oh crap, I forgot to tell Chris about the next task. Ah well, another reason to speak to her I guess.

I went back to my cabin and tinkered around with some scrap metal for several hours before going out and heading to the arena.

When I got there I saw Chris, still in her pajamas, with one of the biggest battle axes I'd ever seen. Her eyes were glowing with a red fire as she hacked one of the straw dummies to pieces. She looked scarily like her father.

"I'm pretty sure you killed it a while ago Chris." I said, coming up behind her, my signature grin set firmly in place.

She turned around to glare at me, menacingly swinging the battle axe; it was plain to see that the conversation with her father had not gone well. "What do you want Valdez?" she snapped angrily, even though the flames in her eyes began to lessen.

"Aww, back to last names again are we? Why do you do this to me, my Chrissy-Chris-Chris?"

"What?" she said, her eyes returning to their normal shade of hazel.

"Chrissy-Chris-Chris, great defeater of the mighty care bears. I think that is a pretty fitting title." She looked so taken aback; she didn't even have time to look angry.

"Well, that's rich coming from you, oh noble Lee-Lee, lord of malfunctioning automatons."

"What did you call me?"

"You heard."

"Oh really?" there was no way in hell I could let that insult pass, equally I could not hit a girl, especially one wielding an axe, so I did the only logical thing, I poked her.

She poked back, I poked harder. Soon enough we were in a full blown poke war.

Yup, I definitely liked this girl.

* * *

><p><strong>Hmmm, really don't know what to do for the other tasks, so ideas would be appreciated.<strong>


	10. Chapter 10

**Thanks to GLN3 for the idea.  
>And I will probably use Voldemort has no nose's idea in the next couple of chapters.<br>Also, sorry about the link, I don't know why it didn't work, but I put it on my profile if you want to check it out.  
>Disclaimer: The insult 'clotpole' is the property of Merlin. Everything else is Rick Riordan's<strong>

Still glowing in my poke battle victory, I stood up and gazed down at my partner, who was sitting on the floor, nursing his finger- shaped bruises.

"So what's the next task?" I asked, poking Leo with my axe.

He glared up at me and replied "We're having a canoe race, courtesy of Poseidon, And we're gonna lose, so suck it up."

"Well someone's a sore loser." I said, grinning.

"I did not lose, you cheated." He said jumping to his feet.

"I did not." I cried, sounding shocked that he could even suggest such a thing.

"You started punching me, that's cheating."

"Did not"

"Did too"

"Did not"

"Did too"

"Did not"

"Did too"

"Did not"

"Did too"

"Did too"

"Did not", he shouted back. "Oh damn it." He said, smacking his forehead with his palm.

"Haha, in your face suckah!" I said laughing, my anger completely forgotten, as I attempted to flounce out of the arena. I probably looked like some sort of demented orangutan, but I didn't, because I won. And, oh yeah, did I mention that I won?

* * *

><p>I woke up early in the next morning (insomnia really sucks), grabbed my clothes and marched to the showers. When i got there, I happened to glance in the mirror. My hair was hot pink, and it glowed in the dark.<p>

I knew immediately that Connor and Layla had done this; Layla had sworn to get me for causing their chariot to crash, and this was definitely a Stoll thing to do. Normally, i would have mustered up an  
>army of brothers and beaten the crap out of both of them. But I had a far better plan.<p>

Not bothering to get dressed I sprinted to the Hephaestus cabin, and pulled the lever that took me down to the 'Leo cave'.

"Wake up you lazy sod." I screamed, shaking my sleeping partner's bare shoulder.

"Aaaah, don't hurt the teddy bears!" he shrieked as he shot up into a sitting position. I, of course, raised my eyebrow at this, as he gave a sheepish grin. "What do you want Chris?" he asked yanking the covers up to his chin.

"A dish best served cold." I replied, striking as dramatic a pose as I could while wearing Simba pajamas

"Ice cream?"

"No, revenge you imbecile."

"Why? Oh, haha. Your hair looks like bubblegum…um Chris, what are you doing? No! Stop hitting me! I can help!"

"How?" I asked suspiciously.

"Piper will know how to get it out, please stop strangling me." He shrieked.

* * *

><p>After Piper had helped me return my hair to its natural state of red I set my amazing plan into action, dragging Leo along with me so that if we got caught I could blame everything on him.<p>

We crept towards the canoe lake, ninja style and tiptoed towards the canoes which were set up for the race at midday. Walking over to the one chosen for my once-best-friend and her annoying boyfriend (when did that happen?), I slipped a small dagger from my pocket. It was an ornate gift from my brother Nick, the blade was too thin to be used in combat, but was perfect for work such as this. Very carefully I stabbed the wooden canoe right at the base. The tiny incision was only barely visible if you squint, but it probably wasn't big enough, so I made a few more where nobody would think to look. I then moved on to the canoes of some of the other people which I don't like, Leo protesting behind me.

I couldn't wait to see their faces when they started sinking; it was going to be hilarious! Forgetting I was in the presence of someone slightly less insane and evil than I, I began to laugh to myself. 'Mwahahahahahhahaha hahahahah ack ack, frog in my throat!'

* * *

><p>Several hours later, after lunch, all the remaining contestants were lined up with their *cough*damaged*cough* canoes. We were told by the great Poseidon himself (note the sarcasm) that the three slowest teams would be eliminated.<p>

The race itself was fairly simple, start at western edge of the lake, end at the dock on the eastern edge. Trust me however it was not. For a start that asshole, Percy Jackson, and his stuck-up bitch of a girlfriend decided that they were going to send waves crashing down on all of the contestants. Secondly, Leo and I spent at least half an hour rowing round in circles before we finally managed to head in the right direction.

"You're paddling backwards you dimwit." Screamed an irate Leo from his seat behind me.

"No you are, you…clotpole." I shouted back, taking comfort in the fact that the three teams that had damaged canoes were currently waist deep in water, desperately trying to bail the water out of their boats,

"That isn't a word!" he said, poking me in the back with his paddle.

"Is too!" I shouted back, turning around to whack his head with my paddle. That appeared to irritate him as he hit me back. Already annoyed I threw myself to my feet and raised my paddle to strike him

Looking back, it probably wasn't the most intelligent course of action. He immediately jumped back to get away from me, unintentionally diving backwards into the lake. I followed soon after, flipping the canoe over as I fell.

I surfaced mere moments after him, my hair sticking to my scalp, my eyes beginning to turn red.

"This is your fault." I spat, even though I knew that it was technically mine.

"Just shut up for a minute" he said back "now look, I have a plan. No one ever said that we had to paddle the canoe to the dock, right?"

"I guess not…"I replied, trying to wrap my tiny, Ares brain around what he was insinuating.

"We could, technically, swim the boat to shore, and no one could eliminate us." Haha, I get it.

"I like the way you think Valdez." I said, grabbing hold of the canoe's edge.

And so, with much flailing about in the water, many 'accidental' kicks aimed at each other shins, and a colourful mix of swear words in Greek, English and Spanish we finally made it to the dock. We were the last to qualify, and were both given suspicious glares by everyone else, but who cares we won!

And of course my good mood had nothing to do with the fact that Leo was wearing a white shirt which turned see through *wink wink*.

**Okay, this is an important question, am I the only Octavian fangirl out here?  
>Until tomorrow peeps.<strong>


	11. Chapter 11

**Wow, only ten chapters and over 50 reviews, thanks!**

**Chris' pov**

After a very long shower, and a very long lecture from Chiron about how 'cheating is wrong, and we should know better than that blah blah blah' the contestants were ready to hear about the next task. We all filed into the auditorium and sat around for a bit waiting for our immortal parents.

By the time they arrived I was engrossed in polishing my sword (innuendo not intended) for the 3rd time, while Leo had progressed to his 5th automaton, the last four of which had been smashed by my boot in various fits of anger. The gods filed in, Hermes and Apollo looking like naughty children, who were cowering in fear from their angry Daddy, for which nobody really blamed them as he was brandishing his lightning bolt. Demeter walked towards the podium, the wheat stalks that had been artfully braided into her hair blowing in the wind.

Her soporific voice cut gently through the arena as she began to speak; "Hello campers. Well, its my turn for a task, so, even though none of my children have made it this far, I have decided to give you quite an educational task. I would like each pair to take one plant and care for it for one day, the ten happiest plants will make it through to the next round. You are not allowed to steal each other's plant." Well, that sounded pretty easy, but what the hell is a happy plant?

* * *

><p>"Soooo, this is boring." said the cheerful son of Hephaestus who sat opposite me, his swinging feet occasionally hitting my shins.<p>

"No shit Sherlock." I replied, kicking him back as I continued staring moodily at the flowering shrub which sat innocently between us. "Do you think we should water it?"

"Probably." he said grinning, as he jumped to his feet and sprinted over to the tap in the corner of the room. Really, I should have known better than to trust him with anything.

He came sprinting back with a huge bucket, slopping water all over his trousers. Before I could scream 'are you a &!#*ing retard?' he dumped the whole bucket on top of the delicate flowering plant. Several of the branches snapped , and a few of the leaves fluttered off, but thankfully the main stem didn't snap as it was held together by the intricate network of vines that wrapped their way around it.

I was too shocked to even hit him, I merely stood there staring at him in bewilderment for a few moments before saying "Did you train to be this stupid, or were you just born that way?"

"Uhhhh…" Leo replied. Isn't he articulate?

I continued, rubbing my temples "If you touch the plant again, I swear on all that is holy I will rip your heart out of your chest, and shove it still beating down your throat. Got it?" He nodded dumbly as I went on "Now, stay here, _do not touch the plant_, I am going to go steal some invisi-tape from the Hermes cabin."

* * *

><p>Half an hour later I returned to Leo's room, fully equipped with invisi-tape, superglue, and a life-time's supply of rubber chickens (really, just don't ask). The plant was in its original, damaged state, the table was still soaked in water, in short the only strange thing about this picture was the fact that Leo was curled up in the corner, holding a huge hammer in his shaking hands. Needless to say, I was both perplexed and worried.<p>

I dropped the paraphernalia on the ground, drew my slingshot in readiness and settled into my battle stance, eyes flicking cautiously around the room. "What is it?" I whispered towards the son of Hephaestus.

He licked his lips slowly and then said "The plant attacked me. It was scary."

My slingshot clattered to the floor as my palm slapped my face. In my mind I was conducting a mini-monologue to help control my temper; 'face, meet palm. He is going to be your new best friend for the next week!'

My anger ebbing to about mild fury I turned towards Leo and said calmly "Plants do not attack people Leo, get that into your thick, thick skull right now"

Before I could say anything else Leo flattened himself against the wall and pointed behind me. Honestly, the man-wait, scratch that-pathetic, immature boy, could take on Cyclops, giants, gods, Gaia herself, and yet was quivering in fear in the face of a potted plant, had my half-brother gotten to him or something?

My train of thought was cut off however when a green tentacle started wrapping itself around my neck. I turned around in utter shock to see that the vines on the shrubs trunk had detached themselves and were currently attacking my face. I squeaked in fear, but all I could think was, 'well this is going to look good on my tombstone isn't it? The great Christie Matthews, daughter of Ares, slayer of Cyclops, laestrygogians, and hellhounds; foiled by shrubbery.'

I tried in vain to rip them off, but they simply attacked my hands. Thankfully, help came from unexpected quarters. With a squeaky (yet manly) battle cry, Leo leapt forwards, his hands aflame and ripped the surprisingly strong tendrils from around my neck, giving me a few first degree burns in the process I might add.

Spurred on by his victory, he aimed a white-hot flame at the plant-from-hell, and with a squeal (since when did plants squeal?), the shrub burnt into a green mess on the table.

**I swear on the Styx that I will update before Saturday.**

**Wise words for the day:  
>There is no awkward moment like that awkward moment between when you were born and when you die.<strong>


	12. Chapter 12

**Aren't you proud of me for updating on a school day? I know I and am, sorry that its so short.**

**Leo's pov**

"That plant is on steroids." I muttered, grabbing Chris around the shoulders "you okay?"

"Of course." she replied automatically, as I tried to resist the temptation to nuzzle my face into her hair.

"Well, looks like we're out of the contest." I said glumly, as I leaned my head onto his shoulder, still trying to shake off the feeling that I was being strangled. "What the hell kind of person gives teenagers a mutant, murderous plant anyway?" he half shouted, throwing his hands up in the air.

"A, demented, cereal obsessed freak- bitch, that's who." she replied grumpily. "On a completely unrelated note" she said, plainly trying to change the subject "I need some ice cream."

"Ice cream would be good." I replied.

Then, as if a light bulb flashed inside my head I shouted "I have some!"

I ran to a corner in the room and pulled out a soggy, cardboard tub, dripping a rancid smelling white liquid everywhere.

"I think it's a little old." she said dryly, glaring at the offensive tub.

I nodded my head and sat down on the bench next to him.

"So" she said, conversationally, "wanna go stamp all of the Demeter cabins plants into the ground?"

"No, that would be immoral." I said, glaring "We could see if they have any ice cream though."

"Good plan, my friend, good plan. The Demeter cabin should be deserted." haha alliteration, I thought, chuckling to myself.

So, we crept ninja style into the Demeter cabin. They had no mini fridge, no ice box and most certainly no ice cream, unless you counted a sludge comprising of miracle grow, water and dirt. They did however  
>have a door marked 'Highly dangerous, those with a maturity level of below the age of 13 should not enter.'<p>

Chris noticed the sign as well, and chuckling to himself he said "Like that's gonna stop us."

I grinned back at her and gave my signature evil smirk. "Let's do this"

We walked into the room together. It was fairly unimpressive, nothing more than an elaborate greenhouse filled with moving plants.

"Ah" I said eloquently, then "Let's run!" I said, grabbing her arm.

"Look" she whispered back, "it's our plant" It was indeed the same breed of plant that the Olympian goddess had given us not 10 hours ago, and its tentacles were waving menacingly.

"Let's run." I Leo.

"No." she spat back "If I can swim across a stupid lake with you kicking me the entire way across, you can grab a plant."

"Me?" I asked a bit squeakily.

"What, you think I'm gonna do it? Please, I like all my organs to be fully functioning, thank you very much."

"What about my organs?" I pleaded.

"You've got that fire thing, you'll be fine." why the hell do I like her again?

Swiftly I crept into the room, heading as fast as I could for the demon-plant. Not wanting to pick it up with my bare hands, I grabbed a sack of fertiliser and emptied the repulsive contents on the floor. As quickly as i could I threw the plant inside, my hands barely escaping its tentacles. It however, managed to let out a high pitched squeal, which was only somewhat muffled by the burlap sack.

Thinking that I was in the clear I slowed down and relaxed, in an attempt to look suave as I walked towards my future girlfriend.

The plants however had other plans, I was almost instantly bombarded with well-aimed projectiles; thorns, seeds, and even a green liquid which made your skin itch like crazy.

I sprinted out the room as fast as I could, the sack still emitting vicious squawking noises. As I sped through the door, Chris slammed it shut, laughing like crazy.

She shut up pretty damn quick however when we heard the Demeter cabin approaching.

"Follow me." she said, grabbing my clammy hand and dragging me out the window as she yanked the hood of her hoodie over her signature bright red hair.

From a behind us came an irate shriek from one of Demeter's daughter.

"Quickly." shouted the daughter of Ares; sounding suspiciously like she was enjoying herself. Together we sprinted towards the strawberry patch. She dragged me around for several breathless moments until we reached a certain section which she seemed to recognize, whereupon she began scrabbling in the dirt. With an elated cry of "Ahah!" she yanked some form of lever and we fell into a black nothingness.

**Ooh cliffy, if you review I may even update by Friday.**


	13. Chapter 13

**So, to any loyal fans of this story out there (if you exist) I will try to keep updating twice every weekend, but I won't give any guarantees for the next three weeks, as I have mock exams. Why, oh why did I skip a grade and take so many subjects?**

**Leo's pov**

We landed with a painful thump on cold, stone walkways, in a pitch black tunnel.

"Where the hell are we?" I asked, setting my hand on fire.

"Western, underground tunnels." she replied, her voice cutting through the gloom, grabbing an unlit torch from its bracket on the wall.

"The western tunnels collapsed hundreds of years ago." I said "the Hephaestus cabin has been excavating the eastern tunnels, so could you explain?"

"Before I tell you, you have to swear on the Styx that you will tell nobody, this is an Ares X-file." She said threateningly.

"Um...I swear." I said uncertainly as she held a rather sharp sword to my throat. Unsettlingly far above us thunder rumbled.

As she lit the torch on my burning hand she began walking and talking "Well then, you should remember that approximately five hundred years ago your cabin rediscovered an entrance to the maze of ancient tunnels that run under camp half-blood. Around the same time my cabin discovered a different entrance. Of course, both cabins claimed ownership, blah, blah, blah. To cut a long story short a huge underground battle took place, a tunnel collapsed, separating the east and the west."

"So why does your cabin remember, and mine not?" I asked confused. I mean, come on, surely we were more intelligent than them?

"Oh my friend, you should know by now, the Ares cabin never forgets a grudge." she said laughing, the firelight causing her eyes to glow with a maniac gleam. "Anyway, this is where we keep our underground conference rooms, our secret weapon reserves; tanks, automatic weapons, you name it, we got it. In fact, I'm pretty sure we have an outdated nuclear weapon down here too."

"Wait, what?" I shouted.

"Don't worry, we haven't figured out how to use it yet." She replied, pulling her hood down. "My cabin is a little technology challenged."

We continued walking for several minutes, and I was becoming increasingly sure that we were lost. "So, do you know where we're going?" I asked hopefully.

"Not really, I just figured if we keep walking we'll end up somewhere I'm familiar with." is she insane? "There, see I know where we are."

"Are you sure?" I asked, hoisting the heavy, squirming plant higher on my shoulder.

"Yeah, we're actually pretty close to my room."

"You have underground rooms too?" I asked

"Oh yeah" laughing, she continued "I mean, our cabin's got to have some sort of consolation for being universally loathed and despised. We don't sleep in them though, according to our past leaders it's an invasion risk, apparently, if we get attacked we won't be able to defend ourselves down here." with a final chuckle she pressed her palm into a small, red symbol in the wall.

A series of doors appeared in the wall, and she moved to one with the least damage, and pulled it open. With a small theatrical bow she said "Welcome to Chez Christie, nothing is clean, everything can explode; you have been warned."

The walls were covered in weapons, old and new. I dumped the shrub on the floor, gave it a kick for good measure, and then walked over to a particularly well-crafted spear, made entirely of celestial bronze, which held pride of place on the wall. "What's this?" I asked?

"Oh, I found that down here." she replied "I really wish I could use it, but it's way too heavy for me."

An awkward silence filled the room, so in an attempt to break it I walked over to the bedside table, and picked up a photograph, with a smiling red headed woman who held a smiling, bucktoothed young girl. "Is this you?" I questioned, holding it towards her.

"Yeah" she remarked, a faint, nostalgic smile gracing her lips "Me and my Mum, she died when I was twelve." She continued, the corners of her mouth falling.

"Oh." I said softly, at a loss for words, until the words rushed out of my mouth in a speedy torrent. "Mine too, when I was eight." I put my arm around her shoulders in an attempt to comfort her as she sat down on the bed.

"How?" she questioned, leaning her head into my shoulder, and placing her hand on my other shoulder.

"Fire." I stated, my voice cracking.

"Oh," she replied, seeming to understand "mine died in a car crash." She said, a tiny, sadistic chuckle leaving her lips. "yeah, that was when I really went off the rails," she continued "I ran away from home, discovered the wonderful world of weaponry, got into fights, I was surprisingly advanced for a twelve year old girl. I pretty much lived on the street until Archer found me and brought me here. That was three years ago now, it seems a lot longer somehow."

We sat in silence, neither one knowing exactly what to say, simply taking comfort from each other's presence until sleep overcame us.

**Yeah, so I was rereading the Lost Hero, and I came across the part which said the Hephaestus cabin was excavating tunnels beneath Camp half blood, and I figured I could use that, so yeah.**

**Want to review my first true fluffy chapter?**


	14. Chapter 14

**First off, thanks for the reviews, I'm feeling quite like a boss right now. Second, to Ummiono011, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to insult you. Forgive me… DX**

**Chris pov**

I woke up slowly, feeling particularly well rested. My first thought was that this bed was far more comfortable than my usual bunk bed; my second thought was who the hell had their arms around me, and whose chest was I snuggled into. Not that I was complaining, it was actually quite comfortable.

Soon, everything came back to me; the tears, the heart-to-heart conversation, the hugs. I shot up onto my elbows as fast as I could as the realization hit me, _I had slept with Leo Valdez_ (gods, get your mind out of the gutter people, not in that way). I still couldn't get up though, Leo's arms were wrapped too firmly around my back. He was breathing slowly, his curly hair sticking up at all angles, and his eyes were shut tight. In short, he was probably the most adorable thing I'd ever seen.

"Leo, wake up." I said, as I gently shook his shoulder.

"Five more minutes." he murmured sleepily, as his head burrowed further into my stomach.

"Leo, wake up now!" I half screamed into his ear. "Its nine o'clock, we're meant to be in the arena, giving the plant back. Now wake up." I said, losing my temper and pushing him onto the floor.

For a few seconds there was silence in the room until his head shot up into view. "What the hell did you do that for?" he asked, glaring at me. "And what the Hades are you doing in my room…Oh!" he said, before his memory returned, and his face flushed slightly red. My face, on the other hand was already as red as my hair, if the heat emanating from it was any indication.

"Hurry up." I hissed back, trying to forget my embarrassment "and be quiet. If any of my family catch us they'll kill you, and I'll be on night patrol for a week." I instinctively shuddered at the thought of having to patrol the dark corridors at night, and I suppose watching Leo be brutally murdered wouldn't be that pleasant either.

I dragged my partner by the hand through the door, still refusing to meet his eyes. We sprinted down the corridors, the plant squealing in the sack Leo carried, we dashed past corridors, narrowly avoiding the traps set up all the way along the corridors, before I came to a halt in front of a flight of dusty stairs. Almost instantly Leo ran into me, causing me to stumble forwards.

Helping me to my feet he asked curiously "Where are we?"

"Entrance 11H." I replied, unhelpfully. "Direct passageway into the Hermes cabin. It's normally kept tightly locked, imagine the chaos those idiots could cause if they discovered these passages, but I think I should be able to crack the lock."

I poked at the massive padlock on the trapdoor we had climbed up to with my finger, examining it from every angle. Hmm, should have a hairclip in here somewhere, I thought as my left hand combed through my red mop of a hairstyle. With a triumphant "Ahah!", I pulled one from its mass, and began to pick the lock. Hey, I hadn't grown up on the streets for nothing.

Using my limited strength I undid the padlock, and lifted the huge, rusty chain from its handle. Very slowly, so as not to make a noise, I lifted the hatch. Thankfully the cabin was deserted, except for one snoring Stoll brother (couldn't make out which one it was). We heaved ourselves out and onto the wood floor, then sprinted through the cabin entrance, the shrub, thankfully, was silent.

We sprinted to the arena in record time, with only a few scraped knees and twisted ankles to show for our efforts. Thankfully, all my fears about people piecing together the fact that both Leo and I were disheveled and wearing the same clothes as yesterday and coming up with a not so far off answer, were quieted when we saw the other contestants. Many of them were in far worse condition than us. Annabeth and Percy were completely covered in welts, probably from a good lashing by the demon plant, who was definitely the best looking shrub of the group. Three of the pairs had no plant at all, holding instead hacked off branches or a few leaves.

Demeter looked like she was about ready to commit mass genocide at the sight of so many obviously non-happy plants. I'm fairly sure that I could see tears swimming in her eyes when she came up to the podium to speak.

"I am repulsed at this display of gross ignorance and plant-cruelty." The agriculture goddess screamed "You people plainly do not have enough cereal in your diets, I shall have to talk to Dionysus about that." A collective shudder ran through the crowd at this last remark. "Now all of you without plants get out of my sight, you are disqualified." She hissed through gritted teeth. "Now" she continued, smoothing her hemp dress "as Hephaestus has no inclination to speak to you, I shall announce his task. He says that you must navigate your way through a maze that will be built on camp. In the center of the maze is something which should help you in your next task. A maximum of nine pairs will make it through the maze and into the center."

Why do I have a feeling I am really not going to enjoy this task?

**By my estimation, we are about half-way through this fic; I still have to write tasks for Dionysus, Apollo, Hades, Hermes, Zeus, Hera and I think someone else, but I can't remember who.**

**Also, I would like to start a poll now, who should be the final pair? Should it be Jason & Piper, Percy & Annabeth, Leo & Chris, another random couple of your choosing? Vote now! (via review or pm)**


	15. Chapter 15

**Studying for these mocks is killing me, but I really enjoyed writing this chapter.**

**Chris' pov:**

Now, running into a metal maze filled with dastardly creatures, and booby traps probably doesn't figure all that high on your 'to do list', to be honest it's not that high up on mine either, so I obviously didn't want to wake up.

"Chris, get up. We're not going to do this this morning."

"Go away Nick, I have some serious sleeping to do." I mumbled softly to my older brother.

"You have ten seconds." He laughed as he started counting down "1, 2, skip a few, 10. NOW GET UP." With a final laugh, my steroid pumped brother grabbed my ankles at the same time as my hands gripped the bed posts. Being stubborn Ares spawn neither of us let go. I clung on desperately, until Nick, who apparently just discovered that he does in fact have a lump of grey matter in his thick skull, let go and I fell to the floor with a thump.

"I hate you, Austin-Nicholas." I sneered.

"Get dressed, idiot."

I sighed as I got up off my sore butt and dressed quickly, before sprinting to the breakfast table. I had just enough time to gulp down a waffle before Chiron announced that the participants should follow him.

The maze was gigantic, made of huge celestial bronze bushes, which met at the top to form a roof. It had ten entrances, one for each of the remaining pairs. Leo and I were led to one of the entrances at the same time as everyone else was led to theirs.

"Okay, whatta we do now?" I asked Leo uncertainly, peering into the gloom of the maze.

"Um, I heard that if you keep your left hand on the left hand, you will eventually reach the center." He said hopefully as we entered the maze. Instantly the metal plants grew to close the entrance, at the  
>same time as an eerie dim light filled the corridors. Just Brilliant.<p>

I carefully placed my left hand on the wall, as my right hand entwined with Leo's. Just so we couldn't get separated, not for any other reasons.

Very cautiously we stepped forward, and surprisingly, nothing happened, so we took another. Gaining confidence, we began to shuffle slowly down the gloomy corridor, my left hand pressed tightly against the wall.

We had perhaps gone a grand total of fifteen glorious feet when I stepped on something, and golden fibres began to grow around my feet, busily transforming my huge boots into gold statues.

With a high pitched squeak, I scrabbled at Leo's back in a desperate attempt to stop myself from falling over. With a degree of intelligence which I did not think he possessed, Leo quickly yanked my feet from the loose shoes, leaving me in socked feet. The tendrils then tried to attack him, but shied away at the last moment. Parental favoritism much?

We soon learned that anything metal which I touched, including the walls and floor, could and would attack me without hesitation, but wouldn't dare touch my partner. It was really starting to piss me off.  
>We had gone perhaps 100 feet, and I had already been attacked a grand total of eleven times. I mean, I'm not that repulsive am I?<p>

"Okay, this is getting ridiculous." cried Leo exasperatedly as he did his best to pull me from the wall whose branches had wrapped themselves firmly around my waist, and were currently trying to crush my hip bones.

"You don't say?" I gasped out as Leo's hands left mine, and moved towards the branches. The second his hands touched the metal plant the branches melted away. "Damn racist plants." I spat. "Now what the hell are we gonna do, I basically can't touch anything." I whined.'

"I could carry you." he said uncertainly, making it sound more like a question than a statement.

I raised my eye skeptically at his lanky frame. "I guess we could try." I said shrugging.

Slowly, Leo got down on his knees, and I carefully got onto his back, piggy-back style. Surprisingly, he got to his feet fairly easily, and could even walk without stumbling; I guess forgery does help build muscles.

We progressed fairly quickly down the corridors from that point on. Nothing attacked us, and I was pretty sure that the tunnels were leading Leo to the center. Hephaestus is such a cheat!

After a few stumbles we arrived in the center of the maze. Right in the middle stood a simple table, equipped with eight white scrolls. Leo set me down on the ground and I, in an attempt to save face, strode purposefully towards the table, my partner trailing behind me.

"We're first." I observed as he picked one of them up.

"Yup." He shrugged.

"I guess we should go, before another inanimate object decides that it would like nothing better than to rip my guts out." I quipped, laughing nervously.

"Do you hear that?" Leo asked, curiously.

"What?"

"That hissing noise."

"You're imagining things." I said, thumping his back before turning around "on second thoughts…"

"What?" queried Leo, twisting the scroll between his hands as he too turned around.

Right there in front of us hissed a huge snake, with a head at both ends.

"Run!" I screamed, grabbing his hand. For once, Leo didn't need to be told twice.

We sprinted down corridors, him clutching onto the scroll, I trying desperately to avoid the random objects that had apparently made it their life goal to drag me to Tartarus.

We made it out surprisingly quickly, I suppose the godly endorphins gave us excellent maze skills as well as extra energy. As we burst through the door and into the glorious, glorious sun, we managed to run into each other, and both flew to the ground in a heap.

With our bodies covered in scratches, and our hands and faces now covered in dirt, we looked every bit the conquering heroes. Yeah, gotta love the sarcasm.

**Sorry, that chapter wasn't that good. Hopefully I'll update tomorrow.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Biology really needs to go crawl in a hole and die. I'm sorry, I just felt like saying that.**

I woke up bright and early the next day, I even had enough time to cleanse myself of the dirt that had collected on my person, which felt pretty good. I had a hearty, nutritious breakfast of fruit loops and French toast and then went to stand next to Leo in the arena. This whole competition thing was becoming routine.

"Now campers" said Athena, here we go again… "As we told you yesterday you have one more task to complete. Yesterday those of you who reached the center of the maze in time retrieved a scroll from it. This scroll is the key to your completing the task…"

Oh shit… "Leo" I hissed "do we have the scroll?"

"Uuuuummmmmm…I think I used it to wipe my hands, which would mean it's in the garbage in bunker nine." He replied as he fiddled with some wires.

"Okay, as long as we got it."

"…which is to navigate your way past numerous obstacles towards a meeting point, using nothing but the scroll as your map. You will begin in area you are unfamiliar with, you will have no idea where you are. Any questions? No, alright then, here are the rules for the task: there can be no conferring between teams, no maiming or otherwise harming other teams, no help from the gods, and no use of mortal transport." Okay, maybe this was going to be a little different. She continued on smoothly, "You will be transported to the starting place by Apollo in his sun chariot."

"Cool!" I heard Leo whisper yell in my ear.

"'Sup kiddos." Said Apollo from behind the wisdom goddess "We leave in half an hour."

"Hurry Up!" screamed Leo, grabbing my hand and dragging me towards bunker nine.

After much searching we eventually found the sticky, oil stained map, thankfully just in time to make it to Apollo's sun chariot, which was in a sleek, minivan form.

I slipped into a cushy seat next to the window and stared out at the view of camp, wondering where we were going. Leo sat next to me, and slipped one hand into mine before chatting animatedly with Jason and Piper who sat next to him. I was just starting to think that hey, this trip could actually be pretty cool when Apollo turned on the sound system and Friday blasted from the stereos.

Lord Zeus, please kill me now.

* * *

><p>We zipped over lakes, hills deserts and cities so quickly I wondered if we were traveling at the speed of sound. It would have been a great trip had it not been for the facts that Apollo decided to force all to listen to Justin Bieber, and Leo had fallen asleep and was drooling on my shoulder, although I still couldn't decide whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. Then he started snoring, okay, definitely a bad thing.<p>

At almost the exact same time as I was screaming at Leo to wake the hell up the minivan jolted to the floor. We were in the middle of a desert. It looked like the kind of place you would expect to see tumbleweed go rolling across the planes before the camera zoomed out to see two cowboys with bowed legs facing off, hands itching to reach for their pistols and start shooting.

"Welcome to Death Valley!" cried Apollo ecstatically, throwing his hands in the air "your current location is marked with a big red dot…oh and just to make sure you don't cheat" Apollo trailed off and clapped his hands together. Instantly all the other pairs disappeared. "Now you can't see or hear each other." He laughed as he hopped into the sun chariot, now a gleaming Porsche 918 Spyder, I noticed with envy. "Good luck" he called after us as he sped off.

"Okay" said Leo flatly, then as if trying to cheer me up he said "Let's do this!" in the most fake upbeat voice I have ever heard.

As we drew out the map and carefully flattened it out to take a look a ball of tumbleweed skittered past our feet. Just brilliant.

**Yup, so I decided to make this the last task, but don't worry it'll be a long task, this fic still has several chapters left to go. And, sorry that this was just a filler, and for the length, nut it was short or nothing because I have so many exams to study for *falls to the floor, foaming at the mouth* But a Porsche 918 Spyder, my dream car…too bad it'll never happen.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Wooh, just a bit of a filler today, I promise tomorrow will be better.**

"Okay, I found the red dot, and there's this spinning compass thing in the corner which says we're facing North." said Leo, furrowing his brows.

I grabbed the map from his hands, but to my surprise he had actually interpreted it correctly. "Okay, and we're supposed to head North so walk on!" I said in my best 'I'm bored and far too good for all this' face.

"Soooo...got any water?" asked Leo after about five minutes. Shit, these tasks better have snack bars.

* * *

><p>"Ya know." I gasped through cracked lips "we've been walking for three hours I'm pretty sure we should have found an obstacle by now."<p>

"Yeah." he replied, his voice cracking. "Am I the only one who feels like they're about to collapse?"

"Most definitely not." I rasped back, adjusting the piece of cloth I had ripped off my tee-shirt and tied around my forehead.

"H-hey." croaked my partner "is that water?"

I looked to where he was pointing and saw, much to my delight, what appeared to be an oasis. "It could be a mirage." I said, tapping his arm. We staggered over to the water hole, clinging to each other for support.

"Why does it keep getting further away?" moaned Leo softly.

"I don't think it exists." I murmured in reply.

He groaned and placed his head in his hands, as I started licking my dry lips with my swollen tongue.

"Come on Leo, can't stop now." I said tugging desperately at his arm. He threw his arm around my shoulder, to support both of us (an action which I found rather attractive) as he grabbed the map from his pocket and we continued to look despairingly at its dirty surface.

"We're going the right way." said Leo despondently. "Why haven't we found anything?"

"I don't know." I replied, leaning against his shoulder as he folded the map and we staggered on.

* * *

><p>It was sunset by the time we found the narrow, dirt road, equipped with a tiny gas station. I guess people actually do come to Death Valley for fun, I realised with surprise.<p>

"This isn't on the map." rasped my partner, flattening the map out in his hands.

I looked at it over his shoulder and confirmed his statement. But then I noticed what looked like an upside down N in the bottom left-hand corner. I ripped the map from Leo's hands and wiped away the oil smudge which concealed the letter.

Beneath it was an upside down compass rose. Very slowly and deliberately I turned the map around so that was the bottom was now the top, stating softly "We were supposed to head south, the map was upside down. Gods, how could I be so stupid." I cried, petulantly stamping the ground.

"Shit, shit, shit." He cursed, scuffing the ground with renewed vigour and anger, as we shuffled towards the gas station.

"Well, we can't go back now." I replied, scowling. "And we lost the damn tournament that's for sure."

"Sorry." He muttered through chapped lips.

"It's not your fault." I sighed back "Come on, let's get some food and water in that delightful gas station store over there."

We sprinted to the door with renewed vigour, bursting into the air conditioned room with relief. We instantly fell upon the fridge which held hundreds of small water bottles. Never has luke-warm water tasted so good.

"Well" I said, cracking a rare smile "look on the bright side, at least we won't be attacked by any ravenous monsters, right?"

"Hopefully, unless there's some cannibalistic desert monster planning to swoop down and kill us." he said with his trade-mark grin.

"Oh what a clever kiddie." Rasped a voice from behind us. "Ma said you would be here."

"You just had to tempt the fates didn't you Leonardo Valdez?" I sighed, spinning around, and jumping into battle position, my sword at the ready.

"Torque?" gulped Leo, staring at the huge, ugly, one-eyed monster standing before us.

"You know this ugly bastard?" I snapped, shifting uneasily on the balls of my feet.

"I kinda killed him." He shrugged back. "And if you think he's ugly, wait until you meet his mother."

"I think I'll pass." I shouted as I dodged one of the Cyclops' giant fists, landing in a rack of 'Death Valley' post cards.

I jumped quickly back to my feet, sheathing my sword and pulling out my catapult. I shot round after round at the one-eyed monster as Leo attempted to toast him with his fire. Unfortunately, Cyclops are immune to fire, my shots were too small to damage him and to attack him at a closer range was far too dangerous.

The same restriction, however, plainly did not apply to Torque as he lunged towards me, his fist clipping my shoulder, sending me rolling to the dusty tiles, my shoulder smashing into the floor. I heard Leo shout at me to get out of the way, but I was too slow to avoid the huge fist that smashed into my thick skull, leaving me on the ground, unconscious and helpless.

**My apologies, that was reeeeally short, but whatever. I have a lot of studying to do…which I suppose I should do some more of…**


	18. Chapter 18

**Well, this is definitely my favorite chapter yet, so enjoy!**

**Leo's pov:**

I woke up feeling worse than I had in years, my hands and feet were tied together, and I was had thick ropes tied around my entire body, fixing me tightly to a pole. Chris was tied to the same pole, her back to mine. And I was really hot, really, really hot, and unfortunately, not in the sexy way (although I was that too). Normally, heat and fire wouldn't faze me, hell, I was immune, my partner *cough*future girlfriend*cough*, however was not.

I looked down in panic, and realised we were on a spit above a huge fire, and we were turning. Those fu-sorry-frigging Cyclops were cooking us. Badly. "Chris, Chris wake up." I hissed to my softly snoring partner. Come on, who snores while they're being roasted alive?

"Not yet, it's too warm." she murmured, before falling back to sleep.

I couldn't shout at her, as I didn't want to alert our capturers of our conscious state, so I contorted my body in such a way that I was able to pinch her calves with my booted heals. Cruel but necessary

"What?" she asked, obviously pissed off. "Ahh, I remember now."

"Oh good." I muttered "do something."

"What, me? You're the hero of Olympus, you should be able to figure out a way we could get out of here." she whisper-yelled.

"If we bounce up and down we could probably manage to ping the pole off of its holdings." A said after a few moments hesitation.

"Hmm, that's a good idea." She retorted, the sarcasm dripping from her voice. "Oh wait, if we do that we'll land in the fire, _and then I'll die_. Imbecile."

"Well then, it's a perfect plan." I snapped back before muttering under my breath "Asshole." Hey, its not my fault I get defensive when I'm scared.

"Dipshit." she whispered back.

"Cow."

"Retard."

"Bitch."

"If we weren't tied up you have no idea what I would do to you." she whispered threateningly.

"I always knew you wanted me." I replied, the smirk evident in my voice.

"Oh yeah Leo," she whispered back seductively. "you have no idea how badly I lust after you." she finished, the derision evident in her tone. She so wants me.

"Uh-hu, it's sad because it's true." I snickered back.

"Is not" she said, perhaps a little too hastily. "Now come on, think of a way to get us out of this."

"Why don't you." I hissed back, I was fresh out of ideas (to be honest battle plans were never my strong point.

"Because I'm a child of Ares, and we don't think; we do or we die. And I'm not planning on dying anytime soon, so get thinking." She hissed back

"Uuuum…" was my only reply.

Silence reined throughout the room for several minutes, broken only by the crackle of the fire and my partners desperate gasps for air.

Finally, Chris spoke; "Okay, you have no idea how difficult it's been, but I think I might have a plan." She said triumphantly.

"Hit me." I replied, then hastily added "But not literally, please, just tell me the plan."

"Right, you know how you can summon fire, right? Well, there's no reason why you can't put it out, just concentrate." She said happily.

"I don't think I can put it out." I said as inspiration hit me "But I could move it."

"Yeah, yeah, just direct it towards something inflammable, that should work." She sang happily.

I was so going to do this, and then Chris will realize what awesome skills (and ears) I have, and then she'll fall madly in love with me…hahahahah, it was the perfect plan. So, using all my concentration I focused on the fire below us, gathering it together. Gradually the yellow flamed formed morphed a white-hot sphere. Never losing my concentrated I slowly levitated it towards an empty corner in the stone room, where it fell to the ground and, lacking fuel slowly died.

"Great job!" hummed Chris euphorically "now we can do the hoppy thingy."

So, we both began to bounce up and down on the spit, going higher with each lunge. Finally the spit went high enough to release itself from two pronged poles it was resting on. I landed face down on the ashy ground, Chris on top of me. By the feel of it she needed to lay off the cake for a bit…although I probably shouldn't tell her that.

"Okay, we probably didn't think this through very well, what now?" said a voice from above me.

"Well, I could burn through the ties…" I said thoughtfully "But then I could burn you, so."

"Eh, I'll survive." She said reasonably "Just do it quickly before that idiot Cyclops gets back."

"Got it." I said as I concentrated on burning through the ropes that bound our hands and feet together. That was fairly easy, and I didn't even burn anyone (I felt pretty proud of that), the ropes attaching us to the pole were a whole different story. However, with a bit of concentration, a few minor burns and a lot of swearing on my partner's behalf, I managed it.

We jumped to our feet gratefully, stretching our limbs and taking in our surroundings.

"That was great Leo, even if you did burn me." Said Chris gratefully, throwing her arms around my neck.

I could have sworn my heart stopped beating. Sure it was just a hug, but a hug was only one step from a kiss, and after a kiss comes dating, and after that…well, you get the picture.

My euphoria was cut short however when a grunt of surprise mixed with rage sounded from behind us.

**So, minor cliffy, sorry. But what do you think, good, bad, better, worse? Tell me (in a review.)**


	19. Chapter 19

**Was I the only one who couldn't login yesterday?**

**Leo's pov**

"Hey Sump, Torque." I muttered uneasily, looking around for some machines to hit them with.

"Oh great, there's another one." muttered Chris from behind me.

"Get'em brother, before Ma gets here." Cackled Sump, as Torque grabbed the spit from the fireplace, and began advancing towards us.

He was barely a few feet away when Chris, who had had her face screwed up in concentration for the past few seconds, threw up her hand in the classic 'stop' gesture, crying "Wait!"

Torque stopped in confusion, he was plainly not used to being addressed in such a fashion. "If I'm to be eaten, I want to be cooked properly." Continued my girl-friend-to-be (if we ever got out of this alive). Honestly, don't you know that if you want your demigods to be juicy, you surround them in aluminium foil and roast them, if you cook us on a spit all the juices fall into the fire and evaporate. Don't you monsters know anything?" Um, what? I thought confusedly, but my partner plainly was not finished. "B-but to do that you need stuffing, a-and foil. So why don't you get that?" she asked hopefully.

Sump and Torque looked at each other, plainly trying to process the far too complex information that had been presented to them. Finally, Sump spoke "I'll get the stuffing, you guard the prisoners."

"Well that didn't work, did it?" I whispered urgently to Chris.

Torque grunted from the doorway "No talking." As he menacingly waved his club.

"We'll see." She whispered, smiling evilly. "So Torque, nice stick you got there." Grinned Chris. "pity you're too afraid to use it."

"What?" Screamed Torque and I simultaneously, my voice perhaps a little higher pitched than his.

"Just trust me," she whispered "When he attacks, dodge and run for the door. It'll be a lot easier with just one of 'em"

"That's you're plan?" I whisper-screamed back. "You're gonna work him up into a fit of rage and make him attack us?"

"It's an Ares special." she replied, grinning innocently before turning back to the Cyclops.

"Well, if you were a real monster you would have killed us by now. I mean, there's no real point in keeping us alive is there?" she stated, chuckling evilly.

"Yes, to make you suffer as you cook." Screamed Torque in response, Chris however, was not fazed.

"Oh, how cliché can you get." she replied, waving her hand. "A real monster would have bashed our heads in and eaten us raw. But then I suppose you wouldn't have any idea what a real monster was, now would you?"

Well, whatever else you could say about this girl, you gotta admit she's got guts.

"Come on, stop being such a woman, bash us in." she continued to taunt.

What the hell did I see in this girl?

With an enraged yell, Torque launched himself at us, ready to strike. Right at the last moment Chris dove to the side, dragging me unceremoniously behind her. She leapt to her feet without a second's hesitation, and began sprinting to the huge, oaken door. I dashed quickly after her, reaching the door at the same time, slamming our shoulders into it simultaneously.

It swung open painfully slowly, and we rushed through it, slamming it shut behind us, triumphantly locking Torque out.

The corridor was pitch black, lit only by the yellow fire I had summoned. Through the gloom I saw Chris slinking towards me, she grabbed my hand in her sweaty palm, gesturing for me to be silent, and to follow her.

Trying to ignore the fact that she had just willingly touched me, we tiptoed down the passageway, passing door after door, some of which had non-human noises emanating from them.

"Where are we?" I whispered.

"No idea, but I'm guessing some sort of underground passageway, with monsters." She whispered back intelligently.

"No shit Sherlock." I replied, mimicking her voice from a few weeks before.

"Shut up." She snapped back, her voice sounding angry, but she was betrayed by her twinkling eyes and twitching lips.

"Hmhm, you know you love it." I murmured sexily.

"Leo, you sound like a frog when you try to be seductive." She laughed back, quietly. "Now come on, there looks like there's a ladder up ahead, it should lead us somewhere."

Oh she wants me so bad.

**Sorry that was so short, but I'm going on holiday today and I had to pack. I'll try to write on the plane tomorrow so I'll update as usual. See ya suckahs!**


	20. Chapter 20

**My apologies for not updating.**

**Leo's pov**

We reached the ladder quickly, and climbed up one-by-one, I going first. At the top was a metal trap door, which swung open surprisingly easily. I climbed through quickly, pulling Chris up behind me.

The stench was unbelievable. We had obviously landed in an old abandoned sewer, which, unfortunately had not been cleaned in a while.

"There is no way I'm walking in that." Chris spat angrily.

To be honest I couldn't blame her, the floor was covered in mud. At least I hoped it was mud. And there were huge rats scurrying around.

Of course, I couldn't let such a perfect opportunity to mock her like this go to waste.

"Aww, is ickle Cwissy-Chris-Chris scared of the big bad rats." I sang in my best baby voice.

"Shut up." she spat back, too busy glaring at a huge black pack rat to hit me. A fact I am quite grateful for (hey, her punches really hurt).

I was just standing there sniggering, planning my next move on Chris when I felt a small nudging on my shoe. I looked down, vainly hoping that Chris was playing footsie with me (hey, it could happen) when I saw the fattest rat you have ever seen nibbling on my shoe.

With a very manly shriek I leapt into the air, kicking it as hard as I could. I landed shaking, and flung my arms around Chris' shoulders (purely to comfort _her_of course)

I realised, too late, what I had done. In a vain attempt to retain my macho image I released her, and stood there like an idiot pretending that nothing had happened.

She, on the other hand, stood there, doubled over laughing.

"Who's afraid now, Valdez?"

"Shut up and get walking" I grumbled, feeling ever so slightly emasculated (not that it mattered that much, I was still by far the hottest guy at camp)

Very cautiously Chris and I stepped into the muck, watching carefully for rats. Thankfully, they all seemed to be afraid of the fire that I kept burning in my leveled palm.

We were passing past the third bend when we saw a ladder which would almost certainly lead to a manhole which would mean freedom. Unfortunately, we also saw a huge number of beady, red eyes glaring at us from one of the walls. From beside me I heard Chris give a small whimper of fear. I, thankfully, only whimpered internally.

These rats, for some apparent reason, did not seem to be afraid of us and just refused to move. Chris, although plainly a little bit scared, found it necessary to hum the jaws theme song under her breath.

I seized this opportunity to show Chris just how manly and awesome I truly am, by rescuing her Leo-style. Summoning a huge fire-ball I shot it at the (somewhat intimidating) rats. Some managed to escape my epic wrath, while others were…not so lucky.

Chris sniffed daintily, obviously impressed with my pyromaniac skills, but refusing to show.

I bowed slightly, gesturing towards the ladder saying "Ladies first."

She stuck her tongue out at me and strutted towards the dirty ladder, sidestepping the pieces of charred rat as she went. She shivered distastefully as she touched the dirty ladder and began to climb quickly. Honestly, the girl could stand blood, guts and having the crap kicked out of her by her siblings but couldn't stand a bit of dirt, come on now.

I clambered up after her, purposefully keeping my distance so she couldn't step on my face…by accident of course. Soon we hit a trapdoor which swung open fairly easily, and we hauled ourselves through the manhole.

We emerged onto a small back alley in what could be New York (although I honestly wasn't one hundred percent sure).

"Come on, let's go." Said Chris "trust me, this is not a good neighborhood."

"How do you know?" I asked uncertainly, wondering if she had been here before.

"It's pretty obvious by the amount of bullet holes in the house walls, and the graffiti message on the wall which says 'Die demigod scum'"

"Ah." I replied intelligently, as we sprinted out of the dirty neighborhood.

We ran for several minutes as fast as we could (I was very pleased to see that I was faster than Chris). Finally we came to a stop in a hopefully less dangerous area, and I wheezed out

"So, whatta we do now?"

"Look, it's simple, we break into that car dealership over there, you hotwire a car, and we drive away. Now stop being such a pussy, and let's go jump that fence."

Did she just call me a pussy? Oh no she didn't...

"Fine." I shot back angrily.

"Fine." she replied, her face unemotional, but her lips twitching.

Chris walked purposefully towards the chain-link fence, she reaching it just before me. Instantly she leapt onto the gate and climbed up it like a monkey. She landed gracefully on the other side, laughing at me.

As I was standing there looking like a stupid, if extremely sexy, retard, I came up with a killer plan.

Quite nonchalantly, I lifted my right index finger and conjured up a white hot flame, which cut through the bars like a knife through butter. Very carefully I parted the fence and stepped through, smirking. I used all my will power not to gloat (apparently girls don't like that, who knew?). I didn't need to though, Chris turned as red as a tomato, with a mixture of anger and frustration.

"So, which car?" I asked innocently.

"That one." She replied simply, pointing towards a gleaming silver BMW inside the building.

"What about the window?" I asked, thankful for having outsmarted her.

She merely smiled evilly, bent down and picked something off the ground. With a small smirk she turned towards the window and hurled the object. It passed through the window, shattering it, landing only a few feet away from the convertible.

"What the hell?" I screamed "The police will be here any second."

"Work fast." she replied, patting my face before skipping through the smashed window.

I sprinted after her and threw open the hood. After Festus and the Argo II hotwiring a car was child play. It took me barely thirty seconds.

"Are you done." Asked Chris excitedly as soon as I slammed the hood down, obviously thrilled to drive the sports car.

"Yup." I replied, relieved that the police hadn't arrived yet.

"You're a genius." She replied, sprinting around the car towards the driver's seat. In her euphoria, as she passed me she threw her hands around my neck and smashed her lips against my cheek for a few agonizingly brief seconds.

She released me all-too quickly and, looking a little flustered, hopped into the car, shouting "Come on."

**Well, they finally-sorta-kissed.**


	21. Chapter 21

**Chris' pov:**

Oh gods, Oh gods, Oh gods, what have I done? Why did I do that? Am I insane? Damn you female hormones. But his cheek was just so luscious…no, snap out of it brain! Leo's lips are not scrumptious they're repulsive son-of-Hephaestus lips...wait, lips? Where did that come from? Besides you, Christie Matthews do not need a man to validate you!

Oh gods, I need a plan. Um… damn you father for being the dumbest god out there. Maybe if I drive fast enough he'll pass out from the pure g-force and fear and then he'll forget I did it. That seems like a good plan, now where's the accelerator…oh no that's the break.

"Um, Chris, maybe you should slow down." Came a soothing voice from beside me.

"No!" I screamed back, "the police are on our tail."

"Where the hell did you get your license?" screamed Leo from beside me.

"Oh, I didn't." I replied nonchalantly, gritting my teeth as I remembered the completely unfair drivers test "Honestly, you send one driving instructor into a shock induced coma and suddenly you're unfit to be let out on the road again. Society today…" I muttered sadly, narrowly missing an oncoming truck. "So, got any idea where we're going?" I asked conversationally, hoping to draw his attention away from the… incident.

"It says Long Island right." Replied Leo somewhat shakily.

"Got it." I replied, swinging the steering wheel around as fast as I could, causing the car to skid around the corner at top speed (not that we were in any danger, I was a pro driver, those policemen had no idea what they were talking about)

As we jumped a red light (huh, red lights are for pussies) a police car spotted us and started to chase us. I honestly don't see why, come on, what's the big deal; I only stole a car, drove it without a license at about double the speed limit. Why do policemen have to be so anal about the rules?

"Chris, watch out for the car." Yelped my rather adorable partner as I swerved around an oncoming vehicle. His lips look so kissable, and they were so warm…no! Snap out of it brain, don't let the traitorous hormones confuse you, Leo Valdez is, and always will be, an idiot who you hate, got it? But he's so cute and funny…oh gods, I'm doomed.

That inner monologue went on for quite some time when the engine began to sputter to a halt.

"I think we ran out of gas." Said a rather relieved Leo from the seat next to me.

"Yeah." I replied, too flustered to even make a sarcastic and witty comment regarding his statement of the obvious.

Leo leapt out of the car, looking quite sexy as he did (I've just given up fighting the feeling) as he walked to the front of the car.

"Come on, I don't think we're that far from camp, we should be able to walk." He said cheerily, opening my car door to let me out.

I jumped to my feet and pulled my hoodie over my head to hide my blushing cheeks. Giving me an encouraging 'come on', Leo grabbed my hand and began pulling me down the road.

We arrived at camp a few tiring hours later, but before I could bound through the archway and resume my usual occupation of beating up weaker people and just generally ruining as many days as possible, Leo yanked at my hand.

"What?" I spat angrily, turning to face him.

"I just need to do one thing." He said grinning.

"Hit me." I replied, anxious for a hot shower and a sparring session.

Quickly he grabbed the back of my head and ungracefully smashed his lips against mine. Shocked, I stood there like a dummy, unmoving, before finally coming to my senses and started kissing him back.

**I swear, this is what my older sister is like when she drives. It's scary, and I really don't scare that easily.**


	22. Chapter 22

**Chris' pov:**

Finally we broke apart, both gasping for air, overjoyed grins on our faces.

"Wow." He said, grinning.

"Yeah." I said, smiling ecstatically, as I inspected my hands which had become slightly burnt when Leo got a little over-excited and his hair caught on fire.

"Once more?" asked Leo hopefully.

"OK." I replied, leaning in for one more chaste kiss.

"Oh. My. Gods." Came an astonished voice from behind us.

My head whipped around quickly at the same instance as I leapt away from my possibly-maybe-hopefully soon-to-be boyfriend.

"Layla, 'Cesca, what do you want?" I snapped, glaring at my two blonde friends.

"We were going to look for you." Said Layla amiably, making no attempt to wipe the grin off her face. "But it appears that you were busy" she continued, giving her eyebrows a playful waggle.

I gritted my teeth and made a mental note to get her back for it later.

"Come on, we should get them to the infirmary." Said Francesca, doing a better job at holding in her laughter than our friend. "You take Chris, I'll take Leo to Piper and Jason, they've been tearing their hair out with worry."

So, as 'Cesca walked calmly over to Leo, Layla bounced over to me a malicious grin covering her evil face.

"So, you and Valdez huh? Not bad babe, not bad at all. And there I was thinking you'll die alone after all your friends and family had realised what a bitch you really are." My supposed friend sniggered.

"Oh shut up." I snapped back as she playfully bumped her shoulder against mine.

We finished the journey in relative silence, Layla occasionally snorting in laughter, I glowering at my boots.

"If you tell _anyone_." I whispered to the daughter of Apollo as she guided me to one of the infirmary cots.

"Whattya gonna do?" questioned Layla playfully, as she began to clean the numerous cuts and scrapes covering my body.

Searching my mind desperately for a threat that didn't involve physical violence, as she was a much faster runner than me, I finally came up with a plan. "I will drug you and sign you up for the huntresses of Artemis." I replied, smirking even more evilly as her.

"You wouldn't dare." She replied, reeling back, shock written plainly on her face.

"Watch me." I replied through gritted teeth, doing my best to mask the laughter I felt when I looked at the look of over-exaggerated horror on her face.

"Well I guess I better not tell then." She said, laughing.

"Tell what ?" questioned a deep, gruff voice from behind me.

"N-nothing Archer." I said a little too fast, whipping around to see my favorite brother. "Sorry I lost the competition." I continued, trying to draw his attention away from _that_ topic.

"No problem, so long as you're OK." He said, obviously annoyed that I had screwed up the competition. Just thank the gods _he_ didn't catch Leo and I swapping spit.

"Who's the last pair anyway?" I asked, making a mental note to put the victors on our cabin's 'People to beat up' list.

"Jason and Piper." Said Layla, then she whispered the next sentence into my ear "So at least one of your boyfriend's friends would have won."

"Shut up!" I shouted back.

"I didn't say anything." protested Archer holding his hands up in mock surrender.

"Oh, not you." I snapped back, crossing my arms across my chest.

"Well someone's annoyed." Said Archer "That dumbass partner of yours been pissing you off?"

"Well he's definitely done something to her." Said Layla, mischievously, ducking my blow. "Now, come on, now that the last of the partners are back, Jason and Piper are gonna have to fight it out." She continued. "It's gonna be epic!"

"Fine." I said, trying to decide whether being in the same general area as Leo was a good thing or a bad thing.

The arena was jam packed, the Gods sat high in a newly-built booth, while us demigods sat or stood on the stone benches, arranged roughly into our different cabins. I bounced easily through the crowd towards my cabin, following my huge bro who easily cleared a path through the melee, throwing everyone else to the side.

I sat down smiling happily, after all Leo _had_ just kissed me, and I was about to watch a fight (always a happy occurrence). I was content, that was, until I felt my Father's piercing gaze beating down upon me. I looked up nervously to see his fiery eyes glowering at me viciously.

He looked angry. Very angry.

Oh gods, what if he had seen us kiss? I'm dead! No Chris, calm down, if Dad had seen he would definitely have killed either you or Leo by now. He's only mad because one of his kids didn't win. Besides, that's his normal face anyway, I thought in a desperate attempt to console myself.

I felt a light tap on my shoulder, which caused me to jerk around instantly, fully expecting someone from my cabin to scream at me for kissing Valdez.

"Wanna place a bet?" asked Connor Stoll jovially, waving a notebook in one hand and a jangling money box in the other,

"Five drachmas on Piper." I said, handing the gold coins to the somewhat annoying son of Hermes.

I had carefully weighed the odds on our walk to the arena; although Jason was obviously the better fighter somehow I just didn't think he was the type of guy who would beat up his girlfriend (although I would like to see what Aphrodite would do to him if he did). No, she would probably cry her way into somehow beating him.

Maybe I could even learn something, after all you can't _always_ get your way by violence and blackmail (though that sure as hell was the most entertaining way)

**Yeah, I kinda had writer's block, I think it shows.  
>Anyway, READ MY OTHER STORY! THE FIRST CHAPTER OF WHICH I WILL UPLOAD TODAY. DO IT NOW!<strong>


	23. Chapter 23

**First off: READ MY OTHER STORY, LOST IN TRANSLATION, personally, I think it's better than this one (it at least has a plot anyway).**

**Chris' pov:**

Piper and Jason entered the arena at the same time as Aphrodite stood up to address the crowd. Instantly all the boys began drooling and swooning at the flirty love goddess.

"Hello campers, and congratulations to Jason and Piper" she said sweetly, putting special emphasis on the word 'Piper' "For making it through all the other tasks. Well done both of you. But now it is time to see who the best _really _is. So, for the last competition you two shall fight, the victor must hold the loser to the ground for a minimum of five seconds. Good luck, both of you."

Damn it, it's going to be a wrestling match? Jason's obviously going to win that, gods damn it. Ah well, at least Aphrodite will make him pay if he does lose.

Although Nick will probably beat me up too, because that was his money I gave to the Stolls…

I snapped out of my musings when I heard a familiar voice scream "You got this Piper, hit him where it hurts!" Of course, only Leo would say something like that.

Gods, he's so cute when jumps up and down screaming, maybe I should go talk to him… No! They will suspect, then your brothers will kill him, and Father will lock you in the closet of shame for all eternity! But he's so cute…

Okay, now brain, listen up. Stop listening to the nasty hormones, they only want to get you and your glorious mistress in trouble, d'ya hear? Oh shit, the fight's started.

Well, when I say the fight had started I meant that Jason and Piper had obviously heard some indication to suggest that they should begin the task, but no actual fighting had taken place.

Wow this is boring, next time we need an Athena camper against an Ares camper; now that would be an awesome grudge match!

Concentrate Chris, it looks like something is about to happen.

Well, something was definitely happening, although it definitely wasn't fighting. In fact Piper seemed to be talking to Jason, but I couldn't hear what she was saying above the sound of two of my brothers engaging in a full-on fist fight.

"Hey Vi, what's she saying?" I asked one of my insane sisters, tapping her consistently on the shoulder until she answered.

"I'm pretty sure that she's telling him to lie down." She replied, her pale brow furrowing.

"Wow, desperate much." I said laughing. But the strange thing is, he was actually doing it. And he was smiling, like he wanted to.

I mean, I'd heard about being crazy in love, but this is ridiculous.

"How the hell is she doing that?" I asked no one in particular.

"Charmspeak." answered a small girl with blonde pigtails and braces from my left hand side. Scared out of my wits by the tiny girl who had apparently just appeared out of _nowhere _(although I'll never admit to _that_), I jumped up from my seat with a startled squeak.

The little ninja-girl looked at me like _I_ was the creepy, insane one. "How long have you been sitting there?" I asked, slowly reclaiming my seat.

"The whole time." She replied confusedly. "Now shut up, Mum's coming to talk."

Did that girl just sass me? I should crush her like a bug! But she's so cute…Damn it Christie, what have those hormones done to you? She used to be so tough…Wait, why am I talking to myself in the third person, I've officially gone mad.

Well at least I'll get my money, I wander what the odds were…

In an attempt to distract myself from the discomforting thoughts that I had become nothing more than a mentally handicapped, soft wuss, I concentrated on what my father's godly girlfriend was saying.

"Well, well, well, isn't this an interesting outcome." Giggled the love goddess, radiant with the joy of victory.

Zeus on the other hand looked like he'd just swallowed a lemon, and then been slapped around a bit with a wet fish just for good measure. It was _hilarious._

But Aphrodite plainly was not finished; with another giggle and a bat of her eyelashes she began to speak again; "As the godly parent of the victor I would like to suggest an idea which would promote good feeling between the cabins" yeah right, more like so she could shove her daughter's victory in all of our faces. "I was thinking we could have a little party for the demigods. No, even better a costume party! Participation is mandatory." She said with a final giggle and eyelash bat.

The evil, vicious harpy. I would make her cabin pay for this if it's the last thing I do!

**Yeah, so again kinda had writer's block, but at least I know what I'm going to do for the next chapter. Now, READ MY OTHER STORY!**


	24. Chapter 24

**I think that I deserve some applause for writing this chapter, because I had to take an **_**hour long break **_**from the Red Pyramid (the Kane Chronicles), which is amazing! RICK RIORDAN RULES SUPREME!**

**Chris' pov:**

Have I ever mentioned just how much I hate Aphrodite? For the first time in my natural life, I was feeling true teenage angst, and I did not like it in the least. All I could think was, 'Oh god, what do I do if Leo asks me to go with him? But what if he doesn't? Gods, I'm so confused!'

"Chris, why are you whimpering? Are you ill?" asked my concerned brother, Nick.

"No I'm fine." I whimpered back, thankful to have someone to rely on in this most trying of times.

"Then could you please stop rocking back and forth, you'll give the cabin a bad name." Way to ruin the moment, Nick. I thought grimacing.

"I'm going for a shower." I snapped, making sure to stamp on his toes extra hard as I passed.

As I walked past my cabin, attempting to block out the excited squeals of my fellow campers (I _really_ hope they were from the girls) I was glad to notice the similar looks of shock, horror and anguish covering the faces of all of my sisters. My brothers on the other hand all looked eager, probably thinking they could, as some of them put it 'land some chicks'. As if anyone would actually be stupid enough to go out with those morons.

* * *

><p>The hot water certainly helped to calm down my nerves, but it only helped to magnify my thirst for Aphrodite's blood-or ichor- whatever!<p>

I wonder if this was one of the punishments Hades inflicted on the assholes in the fields of punishment, somehow I didn't think even he was that cruel. No, only a woman who had spent millennia clogging her pores with powder and foundation and poisoning herself with lipstick could possibly have thought of an ordeal, so dire, so fiendish in its sadism, as this; a _costume party_.

After ten minutes of soaking my tired body in the delicious warm water I dried myself off and threw on some sweats. I tramped into my cabin and walked past my snickering brothers and down into the conference room.

All of my sisters were huddled in a corner, several of them chugging hard liquor. I did my best to restrain myself, sticking to beer.

"What the hell are we going to do?" I moaned softly, sinking to the floor.

"Well, it's easier for you." Snapped one of my hellish sisters. "You have to go with Valdez."

"Huh?" I muttered stupidly.

"Oh yeah, you left, didn't you?" said Violet "That bi-I mean goddess, Aphrodite said all the pairs had to go together. The rest of us had to find dates, or look like losers."

"Ugh, not Valdez." I moaned in mock disgust, inwardly celebrating the facts that a. I got to go with Leo, and wouldn't be screamed at for it, and b. that I would be able to add this to my 'things that I can do that my sisters can't' list (I have a lot of lists don't I?)

"Well, I'm going to bed. Nighty night." I called, doing my best to hide the smiled that threatened to spread across my face (that would _not _be good for my rep).

I slipped easily past my brothers, who appeared to be participating in some sort of strange gang warfare in one corner of the cabin. It was already past our supposed bedtime, so I had to sprint through the camp to get to the Hephaestus cabin.

I should have taken the underground tunnels, I thought as I dashed through the camp pursued by an old harpy, gnashing her beak. I managed to shake her off though; years of pissing off my cabin and not wanting to face the consequences had taught me the skills of evading rabid beasts.

I stopped outside cabin 9, and attempted to catch my breath (I had been forced to take a very roundabout route, sprinting at top speed, so don't judge me).

I suddenly had a desperate urge to go back to my cabin, curl up under the covers and whimper for a little bit. This was probably going to be the most difficult thing I will have ever done, I would rather do anything. I mean, want help committing acts of mass violence? Sure, I'll do it for free. Need aid killing some vicious monster? I live to serve. Need a companion to go war with against an enemy that far outmatches you? I'm you're girl.

Want to discuss _feelings_ and _costume parties_? I would rather be eaten alive by a hoard of ravenous, blood sucking Cyclops. (No offense Tyson, we love you.)

So, mustering up all the courage I possibly could, I grabbed the door handle, and twisted. Much to my surprise, it swung open quite easily. I stepped inside gingerly, fully expecting to be skewered by some metal contraption, or eaten alive by tiny, automaton butterfly things.

However, the cabin was deserted, not a sound came from anywhere. Were these losers asleep already? It was only midnight, how pathetic could those losers get?

Slightly emboldened I took another tentative step towards the entrance to the 'Leo cave' as he termed it. Again, nothing. This was starting to creep me out. Had they no landmines, no pits of death, no triggered spears, no pools with electric shockwaves running through them? What was wrong with these people?

In my anger at other people's stupidity and lax security I took two more steps and was immediately snapped up by a cage and hoisted off the floor.

Oh the irony.

**READ MY OTHER STORY, LOST IN TRANSLATION, personally, I think it's better than this one (it at least has a plot anyway) – haha, same A/N as last chapter**


	25. Chapter 25

**Wooh, next chapter, read and review please.**

**Chris' pov**

Now perhaps the most intelligent thing to do when you're caught in a small, impenetrable wire cage which occasionally gave the occupant small electric shocks (just to remind them who's boss), would be to call for help. But not me, I had my family's honor to think about. And I didn't particularly want to be found caught in a trap set up by some of my sworn enemies either.

I must have sat there for fifteen minutes, swearing at Leo, myself, Leo, Aphrodite, Leo, children of Hephaestus in general, and then Leo again, and just generally working myself up into a foul mood. But finally, finally, that idiot decided he was going to come rescue me.

The first I heard of anyone approaching was a crash and bang below me as something or more likely, someone, crashed to the floor in an inglorious heap (I hope it was Leo). Then a bed began to rise up to the floor, which was kind of strange. Then, a torch was switched on and shone directly in my face, and finally somebody stumbled forward. Of course, it had to be Leo who saw my humiliation. The fates must have a personal vendetta against me.

But then I saw his pajamas, and my disgrace paled into insignificance.

He was wearing a white shirt and duck pajama pants-but not tough ducks with machine guns and eye patches, oh no, he was wearing pajama pants with ickle, cute rubber duckies on them. And the strangest part was that I actually found it quite attractive in a strange, bastardised, perverse way (thank god he didn't know that though).

"Could you get me out of here please?" I asked in my best 'I'm doing my very best to be polite' voice. Not because I dislike being rude (I enjoy _that_), but I did want to get out of this gods damn cage.

"'Course" said Leo, cheerfully bounding over to the cage. He fiddled around with a few buttons on the side, and, with one final buzz of electricity the floor of the cage disappeared and I fell in a heap to the floor.

"What are you doing here?" asked Leo, helping me to my feet, apparently unashamed of his trend-setting attire.

"I came to talk to you about the party." I muttered, suddenly finding my feet very interesting.

"Cool, come into my lair." He replied creepily, wiggling his eyebrows for effect.

Rolling my eyes I allowed him to lead me to the bed. We both jumped on and the bed began to sink down into Leo's room (I _refuse_ to call it a 'man cave').

We sat on the bed staring at each other for a few seconds, neither knowing precisely what to say.

"So, since this _is_ a costume party, I guess we should choose some costumes." I finally said, picking up a lovely, fluffy pillow and cuddling it. "Damn it flame-boy, why does your cabin have better pillows than mine?" I cried jealously, instantly regretting my words (hey, it was a good pillow).

He laughed at that, then his face morphed into an uncharacteristically serious expression. Then, ever so slowly, an evil grin spread across his face. "Leave the costumes to me." He finally said.

"Fine" I said, relieved I wouldn't have to worry about that aspect. "So when is this party again?" I asked.

"Saturday night, and it's what, Wednesday now?" he asked, furrowing his brows in confusion.

"Leo, it's Sunday." I said. Honestly, the boy can lead an army but he doesn't even know what day of the week it is. Mind you, most of my family can lead armies and not many of them can actually read properly, so I suppose I shouldn't be one to talk.

"Oh" he said, as realization dawned on him, then in a more evil voice, he intoned "Oh, yes, excellent, excellent."

"Okay then" I said slowly, standing up. "I'm gonna go now."

"Sure, let me drive the bed."

I am somewhat ashamed to say that once the bed reached the room it took all my effort not to smash my lips against his, instead I settled for a quick, prudish hug.

Standing up, I jumped to the floor, then, just to piss him off, I cried out "And I'm taking the pillow with me!" Grabbing the fluffy accessory I sprinted for the door before he could catch me.

It was already one o'clock in the morning, and tomorrow I would have to train and do all that awful stuff, so I sprinted back to my cabin as fast as my tired legs could carry me, leaving Leo with a maniac gleam in his eye.

Something told me I should be worried, very worried.

**You know the drill, review, read my other stories, review them.**


	26. Chapter 26

Have you ever noticed that when you don't want to do something time seems to speed up towards that event? Maybe it's just me, but before I knew it Saturday lunch-time had arrived, and I was starting to wish I had never been born. I was so scared-I mean angry- that I couldn't even eat my cheeseburger!

In retrospect, I should have known that something was amiss the second I saw Clara, one of Aphrodite's evil harpy of a daughter staring at me, but in my defense I thought she was looking at my brother (who was showing off for her).

I discovered my mistake when, on a trip to the bathroom I was mobbed by someone wearing a sickeningly scented perfume. I could have easily fought the girl off, but before I could some other scoundrel stuck a needle in my arm and I began to fade into unconsciousness.

I woke up wearing nothing but bindings, a gag and my underwear, which, let me tell you, is no fun experience. The room I was in looked like a soldier's worst nightmare; pink walls, doilies, and posters of celebrities (even that beaver kid for some reason), and the stench of flowers and all sorts of ungodly scents was so thick you could slice it with a knife.

Unfortunately my pride and near-naked state prevented me from hopping out of the hellhole which I realised had to be the Aphrodite cabin. I had no time to think up any other strategies (although if I was honest with myself I probably wouldn't have thought of one anyway), because at that moment a most hellish sight greeted my eyes. Walking into the room were Cesca, Layla, Piper, Clara, Lacy and a few other of Aphrodite's daughters.

Clara, who was obviously in charge of this operation, turned to her half-sister and said "Well Piper, you haven't given us much to work with, but we'll manage."

Another time I may have been insulted, but then the rusty cogs in my brain began to turn. This was Piper's suggestion, Piper is Leo's friend. This is all Leo's fault. He would pay.

Turning towards me, Clara attempted to hide her grimace as she said cheerfully; "It has come to our attention that you have a date," giggle giggle "as your friends, and daughters of the love goddess it is our duty to ready you for this experience. But I must warn you, you will experience pain, pain in the face of the unknown, please do not panic we know what we're doing. Rose, the hot wax."

I was grabbed by two surprisingly strong pairs of arms, and forced unceremoniously into a salon style chair. I felt a warm sensation on one of my legs, and looking down I noticed that someone had taken it upon themselves to pour something on my skin. On top of that was placed a sort of paper. Momentarily I was confused, until a few seconds later, the girl named Rose grabbed the paper and ripped it off.

It hurt like Hades causing me to scream some choice expletives through the gag. But the pain and misery did not stop there, they began doing it again! These people were insane! Suddenly, someone grabbed my hair and used it as a lever to pull my head back, so they could start doing the same to my eyebrows.

All the while the traitorous, two-faced bitches that I call friends were grinning at me and waving, ecstatic grins spread across their back-stabbing faces.

After several minutes of this Clara said, a satisfied grin on her face "Finished! Lacy have you run the bath?"

"Yes" squeaked a little girl with braces

Suddenly, I was hoisted from the chair, my hands and feet still bound, and was half-dragged, half shoved into a bathroom. I was stripped of what little clothes I had left and thrown into the tub. I swear I had never felt so humiliated in my life.

I was scrubbed until my skin was red raw, and gods only knows what they did with all that gooey crap in my hair.

Finally, finally, it was over. I was dried and forced into a fluffy pink bathrobe, whereupon they dragged me to another room and bound me to a salon style hair. Clara (who was acting more and more like a drill sergeant with each passing second) started barking out commands.

"Casey, left hand, Sarah, right. Jenna, Shelley, you two take the toes. Megan, you and I will dry and brush the hair. Lacy, you get the underwear." Wait, what?

The next few minutes were a blur of tugging sensations and girls complaining about my 'absolutely abominable' nails.

It took them half a frigging hour to finish, and trust me they did not stop there. Soon, they were applying make-up like there was no tomorrow, under Clara's firm instructions to 'make it look natural, but not _too_ natural'.

Complete they stepped back, critical looks on their faces.

Clara said; "Layla, Francesca can you get her into the underwear, my sisters and I need to have a fashion conference. Do not smudge that make-up." She spoke so fiercely even I was scared to ruin the look.

Then those cows stepped forward holding a pair of lacy underwear and a push-up bra. I swear, they were going to die for this.

"Layla, what time is it?" asked Clara, plainly nervous.

"Six o'clock." She replied cheerfully "So we have two more hours."

"Good, good that gives us just enough time to do her hair. Layla, Cesca, you stay with me, the rest of you get ready." She said in a martyred tone. "Layla, pass me the straightener."

The straightener turned out to be a plastic contraption with two strips of hot metal, which gave the victim's ears quite painful burns. Maybe I shouldn't have jerked around screaming quite so much.

Finally, after what seemed like eons of having my hair yanked, burnt and arranged, the terrible ordeal was over. Ready to put up a fight, I strained against my bonds just as another stab in my arm pushed me over the brink of unconsciousness.

I woke up, my body aching all-over. It was exactly 7:55, five minutes before the start of the dance thingy. Francesca must have compiled the dosage I thought bitterly, as I painstakingly got up out of my chair and shuffled towards one of the numerous mirrors that littered the room. I was almost too scared to look, but I finally screwed up the courage.

The sight that greeted me was too horrible to even comprehend.

Those…those bitches, those complete and utter _cows_ had dressed me as Jessica damn Rabbit!

**Care to read and review my other stories?**


	27. Chapter 27

**I'm so sorry about the lack of updates and the shortness of the chapter, but I went on a school fieldtrip, which sucked by the way, and I only just got back. And I'm reading Mockingjay, so I didn't have much free time when I got home!**

**Leo's pov**

I still maintain that I could have taken her, alas my gentlemanly manners, and her sword prevented me from doing so.

I suppose I should have prepared myself better for her temper tantrum, but honestly I think she over-reacted just a teeny-tiny, little bit, but maybe this isn't the best place to begin.

Okay, let's start at the beginning. I was standing around at the party, which really wasn't swingin' yet, wearing my sexy Tony Montana costume, which I chose basically because I get to wear a sexy suit and carry a machine gun.

I was drinking punch and third wheeling with Jason and Piper, who were giving each other sickening moony looks, when Chris burst through the door of the building which had been erected for the dance, a familiar wild look in her eyes. I have to say she looked quite resplendent (but not as hot as me) in the red sparkly dress and purple elbow-length gloves (damn, she must have ditched the high heels).

"I know you're in here somewhere Valdez." She growled her flaming eyes darting around the room.

Good, she hadn't spotted me yet, I could still escape!

"He's over here!" shouted one of the Stoll brothers, pointing directly at me. You can laugh now Travis, I'll get Katie to beat you up later.

The second her eyes caught me, Chris's lips curled into a vindictive smile.

"Jason, Piper help!" I pleaded, turning around to find nothing but empty space. The bastards had abandoned me, probably to go make out somewhere. I thought bitterly as I dashed through the room, hotly pursued by my date, who was waving around a rather vicious looking sword.

She chased me twice around the room, over the drinks table, under the food table, through the Apollo cabin's DJ booth and out the door, before she finally managed to corner me by the Hermes cabin. Well, if I was going to get beaten up, at least it wouldn't be in front of everyone else.

"Please, have mercy." I cried as I dropped to my knees in a display of (mostly) mock terror.

Slowly her left eyebrow raised in exact synchronization with her sword. Damn, that blade was sharp, but she was really hot, in a strange, scary, murderous type of way. Okay Leo my boy, probably not the best time to be thinking about that.

"Give me the gun." She said, smirking as she gesticulated towards the machine gun prop I still clutched in my hands.

"It doesn't work." I said, slowly handing it to her.

"Nah, that's fine." She replied, then winking she said "my brothers don't know that, I could probably sell it for ten drachmas."

"Sooo, you don't want revenge?" I asked uncertainly.

"Oh, I already did, you're sitting in a pile of pegasus crap." She replied, smirking. Evil bitch.

"What?" I shouted, leaping up in disgust.

"Got ya." She retorted, laughing as she ripped off her gloves.

"Evil harpy." I shot back, grinning.

"Idiot." She said, grinning.

"Moron."

"Butt face." She shot back.

"Really, butt face, that's the best you can come up with? Where did you go to high school?" I asked, throwing my arm around her shoulders and laughing.

"I didn't, but the insults I learnt from my brothers seemed a little too rude." She replied, leaning into me.

She smelt like flowers. I guess those Aphrodite girls must have given her something which masked the scent of (what I hoped was) her brother's sweat.

"I think I can take it." I laughed.

"I don't you can Valdez."

"So we're back on last name basis are we Matthews?" I asked, jostling her playfully.

"Of course." She sniggered, giving my cheek a quick peck.

"Now come on" I shouted, throwing my hands in the air "Let's get this party started!"

**Okay, so while I was on a boat coming back from my fieldtrip I got bored and wrote another ficlet called 101 reasons Leo hates Reyna, SO READ IT!**


	28. Chapter 28

**Apologies for the long wait.**

**Chris' pov:**

We were without a doubt the worst dancers in the entire party. Of course, Leo maintained that it was my fault that Nyssa was sent to the infirmary, but it was his flailing limbs that knocked her over, I just accidentally fell on top of her stomach. And yes, it was an accident; even I don't intentionally throw myself on injured men (they're just so much easier to kick).

Eventually, however, we both decided to give up and pig out on mini-sandwiches and chocolate biscuits. Him somewhat more than me, I would like to add.

We were sitting down in one of the corners, and I was trying to stifle the laughter brought on by his incredibly strange jokes, when room became filled with the clichéd, repulsive lovey-dovey songs.

"God, let's get out of here." I spat, gagging away the vomit.

"Okay." My date replied, grabbing my arm and leading me out the hall.

"So, that was a fun party, anyway." Shrugged Leo.

"Yeah" I replied, nodding my head "Coulda done with some more alcohol though."

"You're too young to drink." He shot back, glaring at me.

"My dad says drink is good for the soul." I replied, grinning widely.

"Uhuh, and look what he's like." He laughed, giving me a quick one-armed hug.

"Are you insulting my family, 'cause we can take this outside if you are." I replied in a mock threatening tone.

His response was to grab me around the shoulders and to give me (an unfortunately literally) searing hot kiss.

"So, we've got the clothes and the music, I think this is the perfect time to ask. Wanna be my girlfriend?" he asked, his eyebrows doing a complicated twitching act, which I assumed he thought was sexy. Well, let's give him a taste of his own medicine, shall we?

I grabbed his head and pulled his lips down to meet mine. "Does that answer your question, dearie?"

"I don't think I've quite got the message yet, care to give me a reminder?" he smirked, leaning down towards me.

Just as our lips were millimeters away from meeting a deep voice yelled from the window of the dance hall "What the hell do you think you're doing?". Brothers. Shit.

"What do we do now?" shouted Leo.

"Run!" I screamed, grabbing his hand dragging him into the forest.

Somehow I don't think either of us are going to be welcomed back into our cabins for quite some time. Honestly, I just hope I'm not sentenced to a few weeks in the fluffy room as punishment.

* * *

><p>Finally, after two weeks of torture in the fluffy room, numerous lectures by my brothers and several screeching matches with my sisters about 'disgracing the family honor' (as if our cabin ever had any), I was allowed to leave the cabin. Thank the gods, because today was the first capture the flag game since I became Leo's girlfriend, and I was going to slaughter him-I mean them.<p>

"Up, up, up! It's going to be a big, big, big day!" I cried ecstatically, clapping my hands and jumping up and down. Oh Effie, if only you weren't a fictional character.

"Shut up." My entire cabin groaned in sync (well at least they're getting _some_ family bonding into their routine).

Finally, finally, I was running through the forest, bleeding from every inch of my body and dodging pointy projectiles. Damn it's good to be normal again.

We had received special intelligence (i.e. my brothers had beaten someone up) which informed us that the enemy flag was by Zeus' fist. And Leo was guarding it, perfect. I am so gonna humiliate the hell outta him.

"Chris, take the right, I'll take the other side." Shouted my sister Claire as she smashed the face of one of the opponents.

"Got it." I yelled back, swerving around the side of the rock pile.

Rounding the corner I slowed down in an attempt to still my heavily thumping heart. I was getting so unfit.

Leaning on my sword, I took a few deep gasps and carried on walking. Just as the flag hove into view I stepped in just the right place to have my ankle snapped up by a pair of huge, thankfully cushioned, metal jaws. Those damn people and their damn traps. And psychiatrists wonder why people commit cold-blooded murder.

"Hey baby." And just when I thought the day couldn't get any worse.

"Leo, don't you find it sad that to actually talk to someone properly you have to trap them first?" I asked, shaking my head.

"Not really" he replied, poking my arm just for the hell of it.

"Well Leo, to what do I owe this pleasure?" I growled through gritted teeth. I wanted to run him through _so_ much, but that probably wouldn't look too good on my permanent record.

"Nope, not at all my beloved." He said ecstatically. "Look, I made something for you."

Groaning, I turned around, fully expecting to find some form of complicated machine whose purpose was about as ambiguous as it was useful.

"Look, it's a flower!" he cried, handing me the delicate metal rose. "It's even shatter proof, so you won't break it when you get angry!"

"Aww, Leo, that's really sweet." I laughed, giving him a quick caress on the cheek.

"I love you sweetie." He replied, bringing his face closer to mine.

"I love you too Leo" I smiled back, then, my face hardening, I continued "Now get me out of the trap."

"I think not." He teased, jumping to his feet and darting away from me.

"Come back here." I cried out angrily, swiping at him desperately.

"Never!" he tormented, leaping just out of reach again, as I tried desperately to yank my foot from the snare.

"This means war Valdez!" I shouted, my face fuming with fake anger.

"Why do I have the feeling that's going to be the story of our relationship."

**Extremely choppy, I know. But I had writer's block, and I just felt like I had to write **_**something**_**. Anyway, unless I come up with another idea, this is the end of this story. This is kind of an ending, right?**


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